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Washington, D.C. — Dr. Vered Stearns of Georgetown’s Lombardi Cancer Center has received a $995,000 grant from the Cancer Research Fund of the Damon Runyon Walter Winchell Foundation to research new ways of treating advanced breast cancer. Dr. Stearns’ research will focus on augmenting traditional chemotherapy with new drugs that may prove to be as effective as chemotherapy, but with fewer side effects.
Stearns and her mentor, Dr. Daniel Hayes, will examine the effects of combining the drug exisulind, which is under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of precancerous polyps of the colon, with standard chemotherapy for breast cancer. Horsham, Pa.-based Cell Pathways, which produces exisulind under the brand name Aptosyn, is providing the drug for the laboratory studies.
Unlike chemotherapy, which causes numerous side effects because it affects all rapidly growing cells, exisulind has been developed specifically to target and kill precancerous or cancerous cells. Dr. Stearns’ research will focus on whether exisulind increases the effectiveness of chemotherapy when administered to women with Stage III breast cancer. The initial research will be conducted in the laboratory, with clinical trials expected to begin a year or two from now.
"Although we are delighted that breast cancer-related mortality has declined in recent years, many women still battle and ultimately succumb to the disease," Stearns said. "We have by no means discovered a ‘cure’ for breast cancer. Until that day, we must constantly search for new and better treatment approaches." Initial research is focusing on women with Stage III breast cancer because women in later stages of the disease are at greatest risk of a relapse, Stearns added.
Stearns’ award is part of a multimillion-dollar campaign by the Cancer Research Fund of the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Foundation to help reverse a 15-year decline in the number of physicians choosing careers in clinical research. The program’s major sponsor is Eli Lilly & Company, which has pledged $15 million over five years to bring more physicians into the clinical research discipline.
Stearns is no stranger to the idea of using a drug to treat conditions other than those for which the drug was originally intended. Earlier this year, she announced the results of a preliminary study that showed that paroxetine, an antidepressant marketed under the brand name Paxil, was often effective when used to treat hot flashes commonly suffered by women with breast cancer.
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