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Public Relations www.uky.edu/PR/News CONTACT: Amy Ratliff, (859) 323-6363 ext. 252 FOR RELEASE UK Offers Targeted Research-Based Therapy For Breast Cancer LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 9, 2008) − Over two-thirds of all breast cancers are dependent on estrogen for growth and the use of antiestrogen therapies is a crucial treatment modality that controls disease and preserves quality of life for patients. Unfortunately, resistance to antiestrogen therapies, also known as endocrine or hormonal therapies, is very common. In fact, this resistance develops in all patients with metastatic or advanced disease. Unraveling the causes of resistance and finding ways to overcome it is an important research goal and a major focus of the breast cancer program at the Markey Cancer Center. Antiestrogen therapies, such as the commonly used drug tamoxifen and aromatase inhibitors, will eventually cease to control the growth of cancer and stronger more toxic forms of treatment such as chemotherapy may be required in an attempt to control the disease. "After responding for a period of time, months on average, all women who have metastatic or advanced breast cancer will see these pills stop working," said Dr. Suleiman Massarweh. "This resistance is a problem, so we need to find a way to make An Equal Opportunity University anti-estrogen therapy work for longer or find ways to basically overcome that resistance." Previous research has revealed that breast cancer becomes resistant to antiestrogen therapy by activating alternative growth signals that makes it grow relatively independent of estrogen and therefore become resistance to therapies aimed at blocking estrogen. Targeting these other growth signals may offer the opportunity to prevent or even overcome resistance to antiestrogen therapy and improve patient benefit. Recent laboratory research shows there are multiple growth signals in a cancer cell that are activated and may be responsible for this resistance. Defining these signals can allow doctors to target them specifically using other pills, which can overcome resistance and make antiestrogen therapy work for longer periods of time. This growth-signaling data has been driven primarily by lab research. Massarweh's current studies are working to prove that in the clinical phase. "We are trying to use additional targeted therapies that suppress these growth signals in combination with antiestrogens to enhance their effects" said Massarweh. "We hope that combining antiestrogens with these additional targeted pills will keep cancer under control for longer and delay the need for more toxic treatment with chemotherapy. This is the fundamental theme behind our work." In the last few years, there have been many new targeted agents that has the potential to inhibit the kind of growth pathways that may be responsible for antiestrogen resistance. They happen to be in pill form which patients can take at home with antiestrogen pills and other prescribed medications. "Currently, two research trials are open at UK and provide an additional option for women who have metastatic breast cancer to consider enrolling on these studies," said Massarweh. Antiestrogen therapy for breast cancer remains relatively inexpensive and nontoxic. It also preserves the quality of life in patients with metastatic/advanced breast cancer. Enhancing the benefit of this form of therapy by combining it with novel targeted drugs has the potential to overcome treatment resistance and preserve quality of life for longer in patients with breast cancer. For more information on this study, please contact Massarweh at (859) 257-3608 or via email at [email protected]. ### In striving to become a Top 20 public research institution, the University of Kentucky is a catalyst for a new Commonwealth – a Kentucky that is healthier, better educated, and positioned to compete in a global and changing economy. For more information about UK’s efforts to become a Top 20 university, please go to http://www.uky.edu/OPBPA/Top20.html.