This October, breast cancer received its annual dose of targeted awareness, but at Stage, breast cancer is our business every single day of the year. This is why we are excited to announce our growing partnership with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF). BCRF has joined our total giving program, which means 5% of the net sales from our site will go to this exceptional organization along with our other incredible partners. The research BCRF has funded has led to so many advancements in breast cancer treatment… research that has saved and positively impacted so many lives.

Why BCRF?

BCRF seeks out the most promising ideas and innovations in cancer research, supporting the scientific minds behind the ideas, providing each doctor with the funding they need to pursue their research with flexibility. BCRF encourages the open exchange of ideas and non-competitive collaboration. Their only goal is to put an end to breast cancer. That’s something we can definitely get behind.

"I'm very hopeful for the future. Knowledge is exploding. We have proof we are making people better,” says BCRF researcher, Dr. Sofia Merajver. And we are too.

While every trial and advancement in breast cancer is important, here is some revolutionary breast cancer research we’d like to highlight:

How AI and predictive analytics will shepherd in a new era of highly precise and nimble diagnosis and treatment:

AI is already being used in screening and diagnostic procedures (digital pathology) for breast cancer, but its use will be going beyond that. Soon, AI will be used in risk profiling, tracking disease in cancer patients, and more accurately diagnosing disease and identifying those who are at high risk earlier in life and more likely to go undiagnosed under standard screening protocols. 

Here are more details: 

• Using predictive analytics (i.e. using data mining, date modeling, statistics, and machine learning) to better diagnose and ascertain a patient’s risk of developing certain conditions (including breast cancer), and potentially track progression of the disease. Predictive analytics are already being used for early detection. 
• Using biomarkers to predict which patients have benign versus malignant disease. Researchers Dr. Sohail Tavazoie and Dr. Elizabeth Comen are using recent findings that state circulating RNAs in the blood can be important biomarkers of breast cancer progression. Based on this, they used machine learning to analyze samples and pinpoint small RNA (proteins) that can predict which patients have benign versus malignant disease, as well as those who are at risk for (or already have) metastatic disease. The results could significantly impact clinicians’ ability to diagnose the disease with a minimally invasive test (instead of a more invasive biopsy).
• Predict how patients will respond to chemotherapy. 
• Help predict if certain younger women are more likely to develop disease and intervene earlier. Dr. Gad Rennert is using AI to compile data from younger women who have already been diagnosed with breast cancer, doctors will be able to use this growing data set in order to help determine if certain women will be more likely to develop the disease in the future. The data includes: cancer-related genes, genetic variants in tumor tissue, participants’ immunological status, demographics, and behavioral risk factors. 

And much, much more. The future is bright.

Prevention: Breast Cancer Vaccines

In response to COVID-19, we have become well-acquainted with mRNA vaccines. While these types of vaccines are currently being used in infectious disease, they have long been studied by cancer researchers to see if they can also play a role in disrupting the growth of cancer tumors, alerting the immune system to “spikes” on cancer tumor cell proteins that the body might have otherwise missed. BCRF researchers are studying this vaccine technology and others (those using tumor-associated antigens and neoantigens) for potential use in breast cancer. For more on breast cancer vaccines, visit this page at bcrf.org.

Life After Cancer/Quality of Life: Psychology and Survivorship

When you get a breast cancer diagnosis, experience treatment, or continue to live with cancer, you may feel like your life is over. You may be afraid to live as you did pre-cancer. BCRF researcher, Dr. Annette L. Stanton, understands that the quality of life after breast cancer matters. Why is it important? “Because living well is as important as surviving,” she says, and we know, firsthand, that this is as true a statement as has ever been made. With a “no one size fits all” approach, Dr. Stanton’s research has focused on survivors’ depression, cognitive issues like “chemo brain,” and the disparity in the mortality of Black women diagnosed with cancer in comparison to non-Hispanic and white women.  

Here are a few tips from Dr. Stanton’s research on how to better live after cancer:

• Stop being the caregiver and put your own needs first.
• Ask for help from friends, family, and your doctors.
• Don’t pretend or suppress: If you feel badly, tell people you aren’t feeling great. If you are scared, don’t hide it. 
• Find solutions that work for you: Start exercising again if that’s what your body needs. Find a support group or a therapist if you are feeling alone or overwhelmed.

Metastatic Cancer: New treatment for HER2

For years, our breast cancer pathology was deemed either HER2 positive or negative, but research has found that 55% of HER2-negative cancers actually contain low levels of HER2. 

In 2022, researchers got a standing ovation at a scientific conference after reporting results from the third phase of DESTINY-Breast04 trial for the drug trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd/Enhertu®), a HER2-specific antibody-drug conjugate. Findings showed that women with Stage 4 breast cancer containing low levels of HER2 who were treated with T-DXd had tumors that stopped growing for five months longer than chemotherapy alone, increasing the length of survival in those patients. 

How does it work? T-DXd targets HER2, seeping through the tumor cell walls, and killing surrounding cancer cells as well.

Added bonus? T-DXd proved to work regardless of cancer subtype: Hormone receptor (HR)–positive and –negative, and triple-negative patients were included in this study.

A number of BCRF researchers worked on the DESTINY-Breast04 trial, and BCRF is supporting research to better detect and treat HER2-low breast cancer.

For more good news in breast cancer advancement and innovation, please visit bcrf.org/blog. 

To help us all get closer to eradicating breast cancer, shop Stage or donate directly to BCRF here.