Abstract: Neoadjuvant Therapy (NAT) for breast cancer results in higher rates of breast conservation surgery. Importantly, there is data supporting the use of multiple NAT regimens, with little guidance as to which one would be most effective for a given…
Abstract: Tumor heterogeneity, understood as the intrinsic (e.g., mutations, dysregulation, metabolic reprogramming) and extrinsic (e.g., nutrient/drug perfusion, interactions with surrounding tissues and the tumor microenvironment (TME)) to the cells that constitute the tumor, drives the variability of response to neoadjuvant…
Abstract: Background: Racial disparities in breast cancer incidence and clinical outcome have been well characterized. In particular, African American (AA) patients have higher mortality rates than other racial groups. Research into these racial disparities has primarily focused on socioeconomic determinants,…
Background: Despite substantial advances in the understanding of breast cancer biology, the decision to use NACT for EBC is based on tumor size, lymph node status, and subtype. Even with aggressive therapy, the majority of women will not achieve a pathologic…
Background: Although metabolic disfunction is one of the hallmarks of cancer and metabolism-based therapies are a key class of chemotherapeutics, there remains no systematic way to identify metabolism-based targets for therapeutic intervention. Because of this deficiency, metabolism-based therapies offer a…
Background: Over the last decade, there has been incredible progress in HER2-positive breast cancer patients with the adoption of targeted therapies like Trastuzumab and Pertuzumab to complement existing chemotherapies. Increasingly neoadjuvant therapy is the preferred method of therapy as it…
Background: One of the most important sources of variability affecting each patient’s response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is drug and nutrient perfusion, The SimBioSys TumorScope is a computational decision-support system that is designed to predict the flow of drugs and…
Background: Nutrient and drug penetration into any solid tumor are critical determinants of the tumor’s response to treatment. They depend on both the density of microvasculature within the tumor microenvironment, as well as the exchange rates of nutrients between the…
Background: Predictive models of the efficacy of different tumor therapies will provide significant enhancements to current standard of care practices. Predicting a given tumor’s growth and treatment response, however, is an intricate process that requires not only an understanding of…
Background: Success of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) varies by intrinsic subtype of a patient’s breast cancer (e.g., Normal-like, Luminal A/B, HER2-enriched, Triple Negative). The metabolic rate of a given tumor is implicated in response to chemotherapies, as many act by killing…