J. Dirk Iglehart, MD

2008-2009 BCRF Project:
(made possible by generous support from Price Chopper)
Co-Investigator: Andrea Richardson, MD, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Investigators at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Center identified an important and heretofore unrecognized cancer-promoting alteration in certain human breast cancers. This alteration is an amplification of genetic material on chromosome 8, and drives the over-activity of several genes on chromosome 8. Two of these genes, neither well investigated in breast cancer, are particularly interesting because they control sensitivity to certain anti-cancer drugs and may direct purposeful cell death (apoptosis) after treatment.

In this new proposal, the Brigham and Dana-Farber group will investigate whether breast cancer cells become more sensitive to the commonly used breast cancer drug doxorubicin (adriamycin) when these chromosome 8 genes are specifically depleted. They will determine how powerful these genes are at controlling cell death, and whether targeting their function might provide a new treatment approach to breast cancer.

In related work, the Brigham and Dana-Faber team will investigate a new and novel method by which tumor cells control their death and dissolution, a process called entosis. This will be the first translation of basic work done by another BCRF-supported scientist, Dr. Joan Brugge, into the clinical realm, and the observations made will be quite novel. Finally, by collaborating with several other BCRF recipients at Harvard, the team will continue to explore the genetics of hereditary breast cancer, in particular, cancers in women with BRCA1 alterations.

Bio:
Dirk Iglehart graduated from Harvard Medical School and went on to do his surgical residency at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. In 1999, he was recruited to Harvard Medical School where he maintains both an active clinical practice as well as a laboratory which studies the fundamental issues of breast cancer. In October of 2000, Dr. Iglehart became the Director of the Dana-Farber / Harvard Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in breast cancer. SPOREs are large NCI program project grants which emphasize translational or bench-to-bedside research.