Around 1 in 7 women develop breast cancer in their life. As we are nearing the end of the October Breast Cancer Awareness month, we reflect with three Oncode Investigators on what drives their curiosity in breast cancer research, the defining moments in their work and their hope for the treatment of patients with breast cancer.
We spoke with Wilbert Zwart, Oncode Investigator at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), who focuses on hormone-dependent breast cancer.
Wilbert Zwart, Oncode Investigator at the Netherlands Cancer Institute
Wilbert Zwart, Oncode Investigator at the Netherlands Cancer Institute
‘I am fascinated by the question how hormone-dependent cancers become resistant to therapy.’
Decoding mechanisms of resistance
Most breast cancer patients are diagnosed with hormone-dependent breast cancer. Hormone therapy is the standard of care for these patients, who initially respond well to the therapy. However, most of them become insensitive to the treatment and often need more intensive chemotherapy.
By looking at the genetic and epigenetic regulation of hormone sensitivity in responsive and non-responsive tumours, Wilbert's team aims to identify new vulnerabilities that may be targeted in future therapies.
Better quality of life
'In one of our studies we found that, just like in strict caloric fasting, treatment with the well-known class of corticosteroid drugs could enhance the efficacy of hormone treatment in breast cancer cell lines and mouse models,' Wilbert shared. 'Most metastatic breast cancer cases remain incurable, but our preclinical study suggested that these patients could have a better quality of life by benefiting longer from hormone therapy and postponing the need for intensive chemotherapy. With the help of the Clinical Proof-of-Concept (CPoC) programme of Oncode Institute, we could quickly translate this insight into a clinical trial, which we plan to open soon.'
'It was a unique experience to go from a scientific publication to a clinical trial in just one year.'
Faster and more affordable care
The research team is currently awaiting the final approvals for the clinical trial and hopes to include the first patients by the end of this year. If the treatment is indeed beneficial to breast cancer patients, this could provide a simple, safe, and affordable treatment alternative.
Wilbert also hopes that their in-house developed biomarker will allow them to better predict which patients are likely to respond to corticosteroid therapy and potentially limit overtreatment of breast cancer, if their findings can be translated to earlier-stage disease.
'While we should be careful with extrapolating these results to other cancer types, as corticosteroids could have the opposite effect in a different context, we see clear opportunities how these insights may provide novel treatment options for patients with other types of cancer.'