Recent findings in breast cancer research
In this episode\u2014which skews more toward a scientific audience until the last five minutes\u2014two American Cancer Society grantees spoke with each other about their recently published new findings in breast cancer research.\n\nSonia de Assis, PhD, is interested in epigenetic inheritance: \u201cIn addition to genetic material or DNA, our parents also pass to us molecular memory of their environmental exposures, and that can affect our risk or predisposition to disease including cancer.\u201d\n\nMatthew Sikora, PhD, focuses on invasive lobular carcinoma, a type of invasive breast cancer. He feels that \u201cadvances in treatment are hindered by our poor understanding of the distinct biology of invasive lobular carcinoma,\u201d and his lab has identified a potential therapeutic target.\n\nSonia de Assis, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Oncology at Georgetown University. She recently published findings showing that, \u201csystemic alterations play a dominant role in epigenetic predisposition to breast cancer in offspring of obese fathers and is transmitted to a second generation:\u201d https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-86548-w. \n\nMatthew Sikora, PhD, of the Univ. of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus and DC, is an Assistant Professor of Pathology. His latest work is titled, \u201cMediator of DNA damage checkpoint 1 (MDC1) is a novel estrogen receptor co-regulator in invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast:\u201d https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33947745/. \n\n1:49 \u2013 Dr. de Assis on epigenetic inheritance and her recently published findings \n\n5:30 \u2013 Reactions from Dr. Sikora and what stood out to him about Dr. de Assis\u2019s findings: \u201cFigure 2A really smacked me in the face and just got me going\u2026\u201d\n\n9:23 \u2013 \u201cDo you think it\u2019s actually the tRNA levels that are different that are causing the phenotype, or are those indicative of a different epigenetic context in the sperm?\u201d\n\n11:31 \u2013 \u201cOne thing I want to make clear is that we think the non-coding RNAs act with a hit-and-run effect\u2026\u201d\n\n12:35 \u2013 Dr. Sikora on invasive lobular carcinoma and his new publication\n\n16:08 \u2013 Invasive lobular carcinoma versus invasive ductal carcinoma\n\n19:12 \u2013 \u201cThat\u2019s a fabulous question, and my R01 reviewers had the exact same question a few cycles ago\u2026\u201d \n\n22:27 \u2013 \u201cHow do you see using MDC1 as a therapeutic target because of this dichotomy that\u2019s a tumor suppressor but also an oncogene?\u201d\n\n24:30 \u2013 They note some interesting connections between their work\n\n27:13 \u2013 Dr. de Assis explains why it\u2019s important to understand epigenetic memory\n\n28:50 \u2013 Dr. Sikora describes why he became interested in invasive lobular carcinoma