Breast cancer is smart, and often finds ways to adapt and survive, even with targeted therapies. This makes treatment challenging, especially for metastatic or aggressive breast cancers like triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). In response to this challenge, researchers are seeking new ways to improve treatment outcomes for women with TNBC.
TNBC is an aggressive, fast-growing form of breast cancer that impacts certain populations in the U.S. more than others, including younger women and Black women. It’s notoriously difficult to treat because it lacks the three main proteins that many treatments target: the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor and the HER2 protein. This means TNBC is not responsive to treatments used in other types of breast cancer, like hormone therapy and HER2-targeted therapies.
People with TNBC typically receive a combined treatment of surgery, chemotherapy and sometimes radiation, but still often face recurrence and poor outcomes. TNBC is more likely than early ER-positive breast cancer to recur (come back) within the first 5 years after diagnosis. However, researchers have found immunotherapy can help the immune system recognize and attack cancer cells. While immunotherapy combined with chemotherapy shows much promise for TNBC, tumors can also become resistant to these treatments.
New Komen-funded researcher Long Nguyen, M.D., Ph.D., a research investigator at the University of Chicago, is exploring the basic science of TNBC to better understand how cancer cells evade the body’s immune system. Through his Career Transition Award grant, Dr. Nguyen hopes to provide a new treatment strategy for TNBC.
“I think that ‘team science’ is very critical for the future and next generation of scientists. We cannot do this alone, and we need the whole village to cure breast cancer.”
“I hope to identify new insight in multiple mechanisms for resistance to therapy in TNBC, including immunotherapy, and hopefully that will translate into better outcomes for patients,” Dr. Nguyen says.
A Passion to Reduce Breast Cancer Disparities
As a postdoctoral scholar in the University of Chicago Cancer Health Equity Training Program, Dr. Nguyen embraces the opportunity to address disparities in under resourced communities like Chicago’s South Side.
“I did my medical training in Vietnam, which is a developing country.” he says. “As a medical student, I was always very interested in solving disparities in treatment in developing countries, and that passion has stayed with me.”
Dr. Nguyen has worked collaboratively with his mentor Dr. Marsha Rosner since they first met during the time of COVID. At that time, Dr. Nguyen was a graduate student studying in Japan. He had planned to become a surgeon after receiving his Ph.D., but his career quickly changed course after he met Dr. Rosner and learned more about breast cancer.
“I started to learn more about this amazing research,” he says. “It also made me want to learn more and reflect on my inspiration back in the day with my parents, and how they were doing great things for patients.”
Dr. Nguyen’s parents were both medical doctors in Vietnam, and he grew up watching them help cancer patients, many of them living in impoverished communities. “My father is an oncologist in Vietnam, and he has been treating a lot of breast cancer patients for the past 20 years,” Dr. Nguyen says. “Breast cancer is very personal to me, and I am excited to be a part of this amazing journey in breast cancer research.”
Understanding the Science of Metastasis
In Dr. Rosner’s lab, Dr. Nguyen has been investigating how stress on cancer cells can cause metastasis (spread), particularly in TNBC. When tumors run out of key resources, like oxygen and nutrients, they become highly stressed. To keep growing, they must move to another part of the body, where there are more of these resources available.
When stressed, these cancer cells also find ways to hide from the body’s immune system, which is why immunotherapy isn’t always effective for treatment of TNBC. By better understanding how tumors respond to environmental stress, Dr. Nguyen hopes to identify a therapeutic target that will help immunotherapy work better, and ultimately help prevent metastasis in people with TNBC.
“We are seeing a lot of promising results in this study, and hopefully, it can translate to the clinics,” Dr. Nguyen says.
This is a major focus of the research performed in the Rosner lab that the team has worked on over the past few years. It is also the subject of a much-anticipated manuscript that Dr. Nguyen is excited to share with the breast cancer community in the coming year.
The Power of Team Science
Looking ahead, Dr. Nguyen hopes to establish a lab with a multidisciplinary breast cancer research team, combining the knowledge and perspectives of both research scientists and medical professionals who are working together towards a common goal.
“I think that ‘team science’ is very critical for the future and next generation of scientists,” Dr. Nguyen says. “We cannot do this alone, and we need the whole village to cure breast cancer.”
As a full-time researcher today, Dr. Nguyen says he is motivated by his engagement with patients through his patient advocates, as well as other breast cancer survivors he has met through the Komen-funded Cancer Health Equity Training Program at the University of Chicago. He is grateful to Komen for supporting this challenging but rewarding work.
“Sometimes it’s easy to give up. It’s very hard to fight cancer, but motivation is really important, and I feel this program gives me that.”
Click here to learn more about the groundbreaking work that Komen is funding through our research grants programs.
