Stuart J. Schnitt, MD

2009-2010 BCRF Project:
Co-Investigator: Nadine Tung, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston
(made possible with generous support from The Housewares Charity Foundation)

Drs. Schnitt and Tung have found that while women who have a BRCA1 mutation usually develop breast cancers that lack estrogen receptors (ER-), cancers that express estrogen receptors (ER+ cancers) become increasingly more likely to occur as mutation carriers get older, and possibly as they become post-menopausal. The ER+ cancers in these women have different microscopic features than the ER- cancers, and they are also different from ER+ breast cancers that develop in women without a BRCA1 mutation.

The researchers have found that while some ER+ breast cancers in these mutation carriers have lost both functioning BRCA1 genes, most have not, raising the question of whether many of these ER+ breast cancers are unrelated to the BRCA1 defect. They are exploring this question by continuing to analyze these cancers molecularly and broadening their analysis of these cancers through other special staining procedures. They are also beginning an analysis of the pathways that BRCA+ cancers use to repair their damaged genetic material which allows them to survive, in order to provide clues about how to prevent and treat these cancers.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
Drs. Schnitt and Tung continue to analyze these cancers molecularly and broaden their analysis of these cancers through other special staining procedures. They are also beginning to analyze the pathways that BRCA+ cancers use to repair their damaged genetic material which allows them to survive, in order to provide clues about how to prevent and treat these cancers.A manuscript on their work has been submitted.

Bio:
Dr. Stuart Schnitt is an internationally recognized expert in breast pathology. He did his internship and residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston followed by a fellowship in surgical pathology, also at Beth Israel Hospital. He joined the pathology staff at Beth Israel Hospital in 1984 and has spent his entire career at Beth Israel Hospital /Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He is currently Director of the Division of Anatomic Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a consultant in pathology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and a Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School. In April, 2010, Dr. Schnitt was inducted as president of the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP), an organization of nearly 11,000 physician pathologist members worldwide. >>read the full press release

Dr. Schnitt has published over 240 original articles, review articles, editorials, commentaries, and book chapters, primarily in the area of breast diseases. Along with Dr. Laura Collins, in 2009 he published a breast pathology textbook entitled "Biopsy Interpretation of the Breast". He currently serves on the editorial board of 13 journals. He has received the Arthur Purdy Stout Society of Surgical Pathologists Annual Prize (1999) and the Golden Microscope Award for Resident Teaching and Mentoring at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (2003). He has been cited in multiple editions of "The Best Doctors in America" and "America’s Top Doctors". In addition, he will serve as President of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology in 2010-2011. His research interests have focused primarily on risk factors for local recurrence in patients with invasive breast cancer and ductal carcinoma in situ treated with breast conserving therapy, benign breast disease and breast cancer risk, and stromal-epithelial interactions in breast tumor progression.