Antonio Wolff, MD

On behalf of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC)
The Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (www.tbcrc.org) has united the efforts of 16 leading breast cancer programs from top academic medical centers throughout the US. The goal of this consortium, led by a group of laboratory scientists and clinical researchers, is to pursue focused clinical trials with close integration of clinical and laboratory studies to accelerate progress in biologically-based clinical research in breast cancer. Since its inception in late 2005, several clinical trials have been started, over 300 patients have been enrolled, a second trial completed accrual, and several new ones were activated during this last year.

One important trial in triple negative breast cancer was completed and most recently reported at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Other studies are examining the role of combined targeted therapy in HER2-positive breast cancer, ways to circumvent resistance to anti-estrogen therapy in hormone receptor-positive disease, and the potential role of improved blood tests to monitor patients with more advanced stages of breast cancer, among many new ideas. Funding from BCRF continues to play a crucial role to bring together scientific resources and skilled researchers to jointly develop new strategies aiming at screening, prevention, and treatment of this disease.

Bio:
Dr. Wolff received his medical degree from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil, 1986). He completed an Internal Medicine residency at the Mount Sinai Medical Center (New York, 1991) and Medical Oncology fellowship at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, 1995). He is an Associate Professor of Oncology and member of the Breast Cancer Research Program at the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. His research interests include new treatment strategies and the development of prognostic and predictive biomarkers (tissue, blood, and imaging).

Dr. Wolff is a member of the Breast Cancer Committee of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the Breast Cancer Guidelines Committee of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). He is past Chair of the Health Services Committee of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, which is the committee that oversees ASCO's efforts in the development, dissemination, and implementation of practice guidelines. He is also a member of ASCO's new Quality Care Committee, and is also interested in survivorship, needs assessments, and educational needs of breast cancer patients

Dr. Wolff is the Executive Officer for the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (www.tbcrc.org). He maintains an active clinical practice at Johns Hopkins dedicated to the care of patients with breast cancer. In 2009, he received a Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award from the National Cancer Institute.