Anna Maria Storniolo, MD

2009-2010 BCRF Project:
Co-Investigator: Susan E. Clare, MD, PhD, Indiana University School of Medicine

As breast cancer treatments improve and we are able to control metastatic disease in the chest, abdomen and bone, metastasis to the brain is becoming a significant treatment challenge. Delivery of therapeutics to the brain is impeded by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). In order to cross the BBB, Drs. Clare and Storniolo have placed anti-tumor therapy in cells of the immune system which are recruited by the tumor. Their initial therapeutic is a particle made of gold and glass that is 1/1000 the diameter of a human hair. These particles can also be coated with drugs, which can be released by shining light onto the particles.

Efforts to prevent and treat breast cancer are significantly impeded by a lack of knowledge of the normal mammary gland. Using normal breast tissue from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Cancer Center, over the next year the researchers propose to develop a molecular encyclopedia of the breast. This will enable an understanding of how the breast changes molecularly over the course of a woman's life. They will publish the results on their website and thereby provide a resource for researchers world-wide.

Bio:
Dr. Storniolo is a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Hematology/Oncology Section at the I.U. School of Medicine. She earned her medical degree at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California. She then completed her Internal Medicine residency and fellowships in both Hematology and Medical Oncology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, N.Y.

Prior to coming to Indiana University in September 2000, she was an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine. She also served in various leadership positions at Eli Lilly and Company (1992-2000), where she was responsible for the clinical development of various cancer drugs, most notably Gemzar.

In addition to treating women with all stages of breast cancer, Dr. Storniolo is director of the Catherine Peachey Breast Cancer Prevention Program. Her research interests include helping to define the process by which a normal breast cell becomes cancerous. That work has led her and some very dedicated co-workers to found the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Tissue Bank at the Indiana University Simon Cancer Center, a biorepository of biologic specimens primarily from women who do NOT have breast cancer. These samples are a source of DNA, RNA and proteins which are invaluable in deciphering the molecular changes leading from normal breast cells to cancer. Elucidating the steps in the malignant process would lead us to finding blood markers that could be used to identify women at risk before they actually develop breast cancer, and would also allow us to develop medicines that would alter that process and prevent cancer from occurring.