Nancy E. Davidson, MD

1) Dr. Davidson reports that several avenues for targeting new pathways to combat breast cancer are under evaluation. Promising activity against laboratory models of breast cancer has been observed with agents targeted against novel pathways, new polyamine analogues and histone deacetylase inhibitors. Studies are in progress with the ultimate goal of moving these directions into rigorous clinical testing.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
Promising activity against laboratory models of breast cancer has been observed with agents targeted against novel pathways including new polyamine analogs and novel histone deacetylase inhibitors. Ongoing preclinical studies are helping to develop these interventions for possible clinical testing. Dr. Davidson reports that work continues on the development and application of several types of polyamine analogues in breast cancer model systems. In addition, studies on the epigenetic mechanisms that might govern expression of critical genes in breast cancer invasion and metastases continue. Since October, this research has resulted in two publications and an abstract that will be presented at the 2008 AACR annual meeting in April.

2) On behalf of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC)
Co-Investigator: Antonio Wolff, MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore

Thanks to support from The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, a group of physician-scientist-clinical researchers from 14 top US academic medical centers capable of doing focused early phase clinical trials in breast cancer has assembled to accelerate progress in biologically-based early phase clinical research in breast cancer. In two years these investigators have now completed the first part of one such trial and activated several others.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
In just over two years the investigators have completed their first trial and activated several others. In addition, Drs. Davidson and Wolff report that, since October 2007, discussion and provisional approval for multiple additional concepts are in various stages of design. These include studies of all types from biomarker development to preoperative designs to new therapeutics in advanced disease. A face-to-face meeting of the TBCRC was held in New York City in October 2007, and the next meeting is planned for March 2008 in Dallas; monthly conference calls continue to be held on the third Tuesday of the month to facilitate TBCRC operations. A formal website has been launched, and working groups are identifying important questions and designing relevant trials in special areas of interest including triple negative breast cancer, hormone resistant breast cancer, HER2 resistance, duct carcinoma in situ, and correlative science.

Bio:
Nancy Davidson received her MD in 1979 from Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, and completed internal medicine training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins. Dr. Davidson was a Medical Staff Fellow and guest worker at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda from 1982-86 where she developed a major interest in the breast cancer field. She joined the faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1986 as an Assistant Professor in Oncology. Today, Dr. Davidson is a Professor of Oncology and holds the Breast Cancer Research Chair in Oncology. Dr. Davidson also serves as Director of the Breast Cancer Research Program.

Trained as a medical oncologist and scientist, Dr. Davidson has devoted her career to breast cancer research, in both the clinical and laboratory setting. Her clinical research has focused on the value of combination therapy with chemotherapy and hormonal therapy for young women with breast cancer. One of her major laboratory interests has been the definition of the biochemical pathways by which breast cancer cells die, in the hope that new targets for anti-breast cancer therapy can be identified as well as epigenetic regulation of gene expression.