Marc E. Lippman, MD

2007-2008 BCRF Project:
Dr. Lippman reports that his team's overall scientific goal is overall scientific goal is to better understand, at the molecular genetic level, how estrogen stimulates breast cancer proliferation and to translate this knowledge into the clinical with the hope that it will increase our ability to identify patients who will benefit from hormone therapy. Over the past year, funding from BRCR has enabled the scientists to build upon their successful bioinformatics approach to identify "gene signatures" that can predict prognosis as well as hormone response in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. In addition, they have made significant progress in characterizing the biological function of novel estrogen regulated genes discovered using their bioinformatics platform.

Dr. Lippman's team has made significant progress towards the characterization of GREB1; however, there remain a number of critical unanswered questions which they would like to address. In particular, they feel that their in vitro and initial clinical translation studies on the utility of GREB1 as a prognostic and predictive marker warrant further investigation into the functional mechanistic role of GREB1 as well as its utility as a clinical biomarker for endocrine response. The identification and characterization of genes involved in estrogen induced cell growth could lead to improved prognostic and predictive markers as well as potential new targets for breast cancer treatment. In the coming year, the researchers propose a continuation of these studies which include a number of important collaborative efforts. Additionally, they propose a proteomics approach to identify changes induced by estrogen in breast cancer cells at the global protein level.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
The Lippman team's overall scientific goal is to better understand, at the molecular genetic level, how estrogen stimulates breast cancer proliferation and to translate this knowledge into the clinical setting with the hope that it will increase their ability to identify patients who will benefit from hormone therapy. Over the past year, the researchers have built upon their successful bioinformatics approach to identify "gene signatures" that can predict prognosis as well as hormone response in estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. In addition, they have made significant progress in characterizing the biological function of novel estrogen regulated genes discovered using their bioinformatics platform.

In collaboration with BCRF grantees Dr. Matthew Ellis of Washington University and Dr. Mitch Dowsett of the Royal Marsden Hospital and Institute of Cancer Research, the Lippman team has acquired gene expression datasets from prospective neoadjuvant clinical trials designed to test the efficacy of aromatase inhibitors. They also have expanded their efforts to identify critical estrogen regulated genes in breast cancer by incorporating proteomic analyses.

Bio:
Marc Lippman is currently Kathleen & Stanley Glaser Professor, Chairman, Department of Medicine, Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. He is also Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, MI.

Dr. Lippman was previously the John G. Searle Professor and Chair, Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan Health System. He was also the Director of the Lombardi Cancer Research Center, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Oncology, and Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School. In addition, he was Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology. Prior to his appointment at Georgetown, he was Head of the Medical Breast Cancer Section of the Medicine Branch of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Lippman received his B.A., magna cum laude from Cornell (1964) and his M.D. from Yale where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (1968). He completed internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital on the Osler Service and further fellowship training at the National Cancer Institute where he remained until 1988 when he went to Georgetown University. He assumed his current position at the University of Michigan in January 2001.

Dr. Lippman has attempted to bridge the gap between basic tumor biology and clinical application in the field of breast cancer. His work established the critical role of growth factors in human breast cancer and in an extensive series of studies has characterized and purified these factors and designed antitumor therapies based on these insights. He has received the Clinical Investigator Prize of the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Rosenthal Award of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society Lectureship awarded by the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the Astwood Prize of the Endocrine Society, and the Brinker International Prize for Basic Research in Breast Cancer. He has authored over 500 publications and one of the standard texts on breast cancer, and has successfully pursued clinical trials for every stage of breast cancer patients with most of these studies reflecting his special joining of clinical with basic science.