Leading Breast Cancer Experts from Duke Cancer Institute and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center Give Scientific Presentations
Susan G. Komen®, the world’s leading breast cancer organization, will be gathering renowned experts and researchers focused on metastatic breast cancer (MBC) at the annual Metastatic Breast Cancer Collaborative Research (MBCCRI) Summit on Thursday, October 13, 2022.
Experts will meet at the Komen MBCCRI Summit to be held at the Washington Duke Inn & Golf Club in Durham, N.C.
The event, supported by Gilead Oncology, will bring together leading breast cancer researchers from Duke and UNC as well as other leading MBC experts for the purpose of collaborating to expand and develop new ideas on approaches for MBC, discuss current gaps in MBC research and identify solutions to drive further discoveries, new, effective therapies, and possible strategies to prevent metastasis from occurring. Researchers also will hear valuable perspectives from MBC patients.
This year’s keynote speaker is Komen Scholar, Dr. Yibin Kang, the Warner-Lambert/Park-Davis Professor at Princeton University. Dr. Kang will discuss targeting cancer fitness genes in MBC from basic research to new drug candidates.
The Summit is a key event of the Komen Metastatic Breast Cancer Collaborative Research Initiative, which was launched in 2020 to bring together Komen and researchers at two of the world’s most renowned cancer centers – Duke Cancer Institute and the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center – to develop treatments that will help people with MBC to live longer better lives. While often rivals in other settings, the institutions are united by a shared desire to accelerate therapies for treating the disease and ultimately finding cures.
MBC is the most advanced stage of breast cancer, known as stage IV, where breast tumor cells have spread to other parts of the body, such as the bones, liver, lungs, or brain. In the U.S., it’s estimated that at least 168,000 women are living with MBC. This year, more than 44,000 women and men in the U.S. are expected to die from breast cancer, most of them from MBC. There is currently no cure for the disease and treatment focuses on controlling the spread of cancer.
