Funding

The Weathervane Foundation has recently entered into an agreement with Dr. Edward Ginns, M.D., Ph.D., of The University of Massachusetts Medical School to act as Principal Investigator for a Proposed Genomics Research and Development Program in Breast Cancer Treatments.

This research program will explore the use of real time PCR for the rapid identification of useful gene expression patterns or "signatures" in a clinical setting. Real time PCR (polymerase chain reaction) is a laboratory technique used to simultaneously quantify and amplify a specific part of a given DNA molecule. The overall goal is to identify gene expression signatures and DNA mutation patterns that are associated with treatment outcome for specific types of breast cancer using medical records documentation. This program will initially focus on studying expression patterns for candidate genes in a group of 12 patients, and then extend the research to additional patients and tumor types. In order to ensure viable tissue samples for the initial study group of 12 patients, tissue samples with treatment outcomes will be collected from 50 breast cancer patients.

The aim of this study would be the development of a platform which can be used in a clinical setting to tailor "personalized treatment" to an individual's tumor "expression and DNA mutation signatureaa." In this way, a patient with biopsy-proven breast cancer would undergo immediate "signature analysis" which would provide information to help predict the individual's response to specific treatments. This would help in selection of the best treatment for that individual in a very timely manner. This approach would be based on overall response to collective treatment, and would include contributions of surgical, radiation therapy and chemotherapy protocols. Results from studying samples from the 12 original patients should help identify an initial candidate set of genes whose "signature" provides a useful correlation to breast cancer treatment outcomes. The initial findings will be validated in larger numbers of individuals, and can be extended to identify prognostically useful "gene expression and mutation signatures" for other types of tumors. This initial study will provide the basis for a much larger archival based study, as well as providing the incentive for a prospective study, where analysis will be performed at the time of initial surgery and then outcome monitored over a 5 year period to validate the reliability of this approach.

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