Study to focus on developing innovative ways for more effective monitoring of treatment and for early detection of breast cancer

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded a $5.8 million Breast Cancer Center of Excellence grant to Bonnie Sloane, PhD, chair of the Wayne State University School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology, to study innovative ways to detect breast cancer and monitor its treatment. Dr. Sloane, who also is leader of the proteases and cancer program at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, was one of only five in the country to receive this award.

Dr. Sloane's research will focus on proteases, enzymes in the body that play a key role in cellular function by breaking down proteins. When these proteases malfunction, they are thought to promote breast cancer. Dr. Sloane will work to first determine which of hundreds of proteases may be linked to the growth and spread of breast cancers and then to develop non-invasive imaging techniques that would allow monitoring of treatments that target proteases.

"If we know which proteases increase growth of breast cancers and we know how to stop them, we can tailor patients' treatment very early on," Dr. Sloane said. "For example, if we are able to see through imaging that activity of one protease is causing a problem, we can use a drug therapy designed to reduce the activity of that protease. We should also be able to image the reduction in activity and thus assess the effectiveness of the drug therapy.

"The ability to monitor treatment by non-invasive means will allow us to change therapies to ones found to be more effective," she said. "Ultimately and perhaps even more importantly, we can use this new technology to develop screening techniques to allow even earlier detection."

Dr. Sloane is the principal investigator for this multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary study. Other participating institutions are Massachusetts General; University of California-San Francisco; Northwestern University; the Burnham Institute, of La Jolla, Calif.; the University of California-Davis, Celera Genomics, of Rockville, Md.; and National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

This grant, while it may lead to major advances in the treatment of women who suffer breast cancer, will fund a pre-clinical study that will use mouse models and breast tumor specimens to test these new methods.

"Great medical discoveries begin in the laboratory," said Dr. John Crissman, dean of the WSU School of Medicine. "We, at the School of Medicine, pride ourselves on having a strong commitment to basic, transitional and clinical research, all of which are imperative in developing safe and effective technologies that advance the field of medicine and help people be healthy."

"Dr. Sloane's research represents the very best of what a cancer center is all about: bringing together basic and clinical researchers in ways that will ultimately solve the problems of cancer," said Dr. John Ruckdeschel, president of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and WSU associate dean for cancer affairs.

Dr. Sloane, an internationally recognized scientist in the fields of proteases and cancer biology and past-president of the International Proteolysis Society, joined WSU in 1980 after serving on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan State University. She was appointed chair in 1994.

"Dr. Sloane is a great scientist focusing on breast cancer," said George Dambach, WSU vice president of research. "She leads a research team of scientists at the Wayne State University's School of Medicine and others from around the world that are at the very forefront of research on a special group of enzymes called proteases, which may be the key to metastasis, or the spreading of cancer. Her work may identify important new drug targets for treating cancers and for new prevention strategies. There is no doubt that this research will advance our understanding of how cancers develop and progress."

With more than 1,000 medical students, WSU is among the nation's largest medical schools. Together with the WSU Physician Group, a practice organization consisting of the school's 750 clinical faculty members, the school is a leader in patient care and medical research in a number of areas including cancer, genetics, pediatrics and the neurosciences.