Dawn Hershman, MD, MS

2009-2010 BCRF Project:
(made possible by generous support from Ann Taylor Stores Corporation)

In this one year proposal three projects are underway. (1) The first is a new phase I/ II clinical trial of Omega-3 fatty acid on joint symptoms induced by aromatase inhibitors. (2) The second is a Phase II Pre-Surgical Intervention Study for Evaluating the Effect of Metformin on Breast Cancer Proliferation in overweight breast cancer patients. (3) In the 3rd project Dr. Hershman will expand on a recently initiated randomized prospective evaluation of a Survivorship Intervention in improving the quality of care, treatment satisfaction and understanding of care in Latina and Caucasian breast cancer survivors treated in an urban academic medical center. All regulatory, IRB, and IND issues have been resolved and recruitment for all three of these trials are now underway. In the coming year, Dr. Hershman will also initiate a new randomized, placebo-controlled trial of weekly acupuncture for the prevention of taxane-induced neuropathy.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
Over the past four months the IRB for project 1 was submitted and is soon to be approved pending minor modifications. Training has occurred and plans to initiate enrollment once approved have begun. For the second trial, enrollment is underway - and five patients have been accrued to date to the open label portion of the study. In addition, a larger phase III randomized concept proposal was submitted to the NCI for review to be conducted through Southwest Oncology Group (S0927). This was reviewed by the NCI supportive care steering committee and approved for a full protocol development. Recruitment for project 3 began in October, 2009. To date 8 patients have been enrolled.

Bio:
Dr. Dawn Hershman is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in the Division of Medical Oncology and has completed a Masters of Science in Biostatistics with an emphasis on patient oriented research, at the Mailman School of Public Health. She received her MD from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, then trained in internal medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center where she served as Chief Resident, then completed a fellowship in Medical Oncology/Hematology.

She is now the Co-Director of the Breast Program for the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. She has an interest and expertise in the area of health outcomes research with a specific interest in supportive care, racial disparities in quality of care and breast cancer survivorship. She has developed a program to understand and prevent both short and long-term complications of cancer therapy. Using epidemiologic methods she has characterized factors that predict cardiac and bone-marrow toxicity. Using cross-sectional and prospective cohort study designs her team is working on a variety of projects to characterize taxane neuropathy, joint pain from aromatase inhibitors, needs and concerns of cancer survivors and cognitive changes associated with treatment.

Dr. Hershman has several ongoing and recently funded multicenter randomized trials to prevent treatment induced osteoporosis, joint pain and stiffness, neuropathy, and the prevention of second primary breast cancers. She is actively involved in survivorship research through the Southwest Oncology group, where she serves as co-chair for the Committee on Health Disparities and Outcomes Research. In addition to her grant from BCRF, she is also PI on grants from the American Cancer Society, DOD, ASCO, NCI and the Komen Foundation.