Over the last three decades, Susan G. Komen Scholar Olufunmilayo Olopade, M.B.B.S., FAACR, FASCO, has been on the forefront of breast cancer research, seeking innovative ways to reduce disparities in treatment outcomes and expand clinical trials and new cancer treatments to include those in underresourced populations.
Dr. Olopade is receiving the 2023 Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction in Basic Science for her pioneering work in breast cancer genetics, including her advocacy for genetic testing and implementing precision medicine for breast cancer. Dr. Olopade is the Walter L. Palmer distinguished service professor of medicine and human genetics and director of the Center for Clinical Cancer Genetics and Global Health at the University of Chicago.
Dr. Olopade began her medical career in Nigeria, and then moved to the United States to pursue her passion for scientific research and to gain a deeper understanding of genetics and oncology. In her early research years, she collaborated with renowned geneticist Mary Claire King, who encouraged her to study breast cancer families to map breast cancer gene mutations.
“It became a compelling way for me to go forward,” Dr. Olopade says. “I was able to gain the trust of people in my community on the south side of Chicago; we had families from all over, including Polish and African American families. That really made me feel that Chicago could contribute to better understanding of the genetic basis of breast cancer,” she says.
Expanding Access for Everyone
Looking back on her career, Dr. Olopade feels that her greatest accomplishment has been tackling breast cancer disparities directly by providing access to biomarker-informed clinical trials to understudied and underserved women, no matter what part of the world they live in. This inspired her to expand her research beyond the U.S. to her medical school in Nigeria, to study breast cancer across the globe.
“The moment I decided that I was going to apply for grant funding and take genetics back to Nigeria was the ‘aha’ moment for me, that we must advance breast cancer research in solidarity,” Dr. Olopade says. “I think that getting to the root of breast cancer by studying African genomes has opened a whole new way of thinking about breast cancer for all of us.”
Dr. Olopade has successfully established clinical trials for women in Nigeria, and she is hopeful that these global clinical trials will promote more inclusion and participation in the future.
“The most important lesson that I have learned is to put the clinical trials where patients live, and certainly make sure that the elite academic centers have places where people can travel to get quality cancer care,” Dr. Olopade says.
Dr. Olopade says her team was one of the first to open clinical trials for Herceptin, which gave promising results for young Black women with HER2-positive breast cancer. She says that in general, patients are very responsive whenever she asks them to participate in clinical trials.
“That’s what I’m excited about for the future, that we will have a widely distributed network that will be able to get a molecular diagnosis to every woman wherever they live, and then we will match them to a clinical trial,” Dr. Olapade says.
With genetic testing available in every community, she explains, it will be easier to identify biomarkers that can predict patient outcomes. Clinical trials will be faster and cheaper, and the research community will create even stronger learning networks using real-world data.
Hope for the Next Generation
Dr. Olopade ran the Chicago Marathon last year to help raise money for a Jewish organization for young women. And while she might not run another marathon, she says, “I now know what it means that life is like a marathon. You must prepare to do the hard work.”
Dr. Olopade also recently ran in Komen’s Race for the Cure in Chicago, where she was thrilled to see her lab workers and students participate among others who have been funded by Komen to study health equity in breast cancer.
“I think for the next generation who really want to solve problems, they must take the long haul,” Dr. Olopade says. “I hope that many more young people will be excited to go and do basic science research that impacts vulnerable populations, wherever they are in the world.”
Dr. Olopade is honored to be receiving this year’s Brinker Award, especially with a basic science distinction. While many assume that she has only studied breast cancer disparities and outcomes throughout her career, they often forget that basic science drives all the things that make this work possible.
“I came to America 40 years ago because I wanted to become a scientist,” Dr. Olopade says. “I was already a doctor in my country, but what was lacking was the rigorous ability to ask questions and use scientific or experimental methods in the laboratory to answer them. So, this has really been a remarkable year to receive this recognition; it means a lot to me.”
