Angelo Di Leo, MD, PhD

2008-2009 BCRF Project:
Co-investigator: Monica Fornier, MD, Breast Cancer Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

In the last year, Dr. Di Leo and colleagues have been collecting blood samples from almost 100 women with breast cancer and have shown that tumor cells are found in the blood sample from 64% of them. The researchers already know from the work done by other groups that a large number of tumor cells detected in the blood (more than 5 cells per sample) indicates that the disease is aggressive. During the course of 2008, they will concentrate on three different clinical studies that will lead to understanding if tumor cells can also be useful to select the most effective medical therapy for each individual woman with breast cancer. They believe that the results of their ongoing studies will contribute to make a substantial progress in the fight against breast cancer. The researchers are confident that by the end of 2009 they will have the first results. In the meantime, they have successfully presented the results of their feasibility project at the European Breast Cancer Conference that was held in Berlin last April.

A new collaborative project between Drs. Di Leo and Fornier will focus on metabolomics, a new field of cancer research. This technology allows for the concomitant evaluation of hundreds of small molecules (metabolites) from blood samples of cancer patients. The tumor produces several types of metabolites that can be easily detected in the blood of cancer patients by the metabolomic technology. The researchers aim to identify a group of metabolites from the blood of breast cancer patients, associated with a high risk of tumor recurrence. To identify metabolites associated with the risk of cancer recurrence could be a major step forward in the fight against breast cancer and would allow the identification of patients who are still at risk of tumor recurrence although the cancer has been removed during breast cancer surgery.

This research will be the first worldwide to test the value of metabolomics as a tool defining breast cancer outcome in each individual patient. The project will be carried out thanks to the collaboration between the Breast Medicine Service of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the "Sandro Pitigliani" Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital of Prato - Istituto Toscano Tumori, Italy. Two hundred patients will participate in this project. First results will be available by the end of 2009.

Bio:
Angelo Di Leo is currently Head of the Sandro Pitigliani Medical Oncology Unit, and Chair of the Oncology Department, at the Hospital of Prato, Tuscany Cancer Institute, Italy, a position which he took up in September 2003. The center is affiliated to the International Breast Cancer Study Group (IBCSG).

Dr Di Leo graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Palermo (Italy) in 1988, received his postgraduate diploma in Medical Oncology from the University of Pavia (Italy) in 1992 and in 1996, received his European certification in Medical Oncology, which was issued by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO). Dr. Di Leo received his training at the National Cancer Institute in Milan, where he worked for seven years until 1996. From 1996 to 2003 he worked at the Chemotherapy Unit of the Jules Bordet Institute in Brussels, where in 2000 he was appointed Associate Director and Medical Director of the BREAST. Dr. Di Leo was also Associate Member of the Oncology course teaching faculty at the Free University of Brussels.

Dr. Di Leo's main field of research is breast cancer and he has been involved in the coordination of a number of international, pivotal Phase III trials designed to evaluate the efficacy of new adjuvant therapies for breast cancer. Dr. Di Leo is also largely involved in the evaluation of molecular markers with potential predictive value in the treatment of breast cancer patients. Dr. Di Leo is a member of the Early Breast Cancer Trialists' Cooperative Group (EBCTCG) steering committee and a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) grants selection committee. Dr. Di Leo is the author of several articles that have been published in peer-reviewed international journals and has lectured extensively at national and international meetings.