Antonio Wolff, MD

2012-2013 BCRF Project:
On behalf of the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC)

The Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (www.tbcrc.org) has united the efforts of many breast cancer programs from top academic medical centers throughout the United States. The Consortium, led by laboratory scientists and clinical researchers, pursues focused clinical trials that integrate clinical and laboratory studies in an effort to accelerate progress in breast cancer clinical research. Since its inception in late 2005, 24 clinical trials have been activated, and 12 trials have closed upon reaching their accrual goals. Results from the first seven completed TBCRC trials have been presented at national meetings. These trials covered all the breast cancer subtypes. One of the studies examined optimal ways to use blood tests to follow patients receiving treatment for advanced breast cancer, and another examined the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to help identify patients most likely to respond or not to systemic therapies before surgery. Also, results from two other recently completed studies (one in androgen receptor positive [AR+] hormone receptor negative [ER-/PR-] patients and one in HER2-negative primary operable breast cancer) were presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in June 2012. Lastly, the results of TBCRC 001, a randomized Phase II study in metastatic triple negative breast cancer, were just published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. All these studies have provided critical insight in the quest to develop more effective and individualized therapies for the various subtypes of breast cancer, and funding from BCRF has been critical to bring together scientific resources and skilled researchers to jointly develop new strategies aimed at screening, prevention, and treatment.

Mid-year Progress: In the grant period, the TBCRC has closed four more trials, which brings the total of trials closed to accrual to 16. The results from two TBCRC trials -- one involving HER2-positive disease (TBCRC 006) and the other a retrospective study using MRI as a predictor of response in patients treated with neoadjuvant systemic treatment for operable breast cancer (TBCRC 017) -- have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Cancer, respectively. In addition to these publications, results from six other completed trials--one in HER2-positive disease (TBCRC 003), one in HER2-negative disease (TBCRC 008), two in hormone receptor negative breast cancer (TBCRC 007 and 011), one in triple negative breast cancer (TBCRC 009), and one that examined optimal ways to use blood tests to follow patients receiving treatment for advanced breast cancer (TBCRC 005) -- have been presented at national meetings within the last few years.

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 a 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 (ASCO), 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. 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.