Titles and Affiliations
Professor and Chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology
Associate Vice Chancellor Cancer Programs
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Research area
Improving and personalizing radiation therapy in patients with breast cancer.
Impact
Radiation is at least one component of the therapeutic regimen employed in treating most patients with breast cancer. Dr. Haffty seeks to further understand how radiation therapy (RT) influences the molecular profile of the tumor, the immune response, and how a patient’s inherited genetic mutations influence treatment outcomes. These studies are unique in that they span the continuum of medical research from basic laboratory experiments and translational studies to clinical trials so that he and his team can immediately link the results from each study.
Progress Thus Far
Dr. Haffty and his team have discovered that a short course of four radiation treatments (known as the “preoperative boost”) leads to changes in immune response and a surprising increase in HER2 expression in both low and high HER2-expressing tumors in model systems. This could provide new opportunities for enhancing response to HER2-targeted therapies. As part of their translational work, they found that patients with mutations in DNA repair genes respond well to RT, with ongoing research evaluating other DNA repair gene variants.
On the clinical side, they successfully completed a novel trial that delivers a four-treatment radiation boost before surgery. Results showed no increase in surgical complications, a lower percentage of patients who need a second surgery to remove cancer, and shorter time to full treatment. Follow-up studies are underway to assess cosmetic outcomes, patient-reported experiences, and long-term cancer control.
What’s next
In the laboratory, new experiments will test whether the increased HER2 expression after preoperative RT leads to better responses to HER2-targeted therapies in models, potentially informing future treatment strategies in patients. They will also begin experiments exploring whether electromagnetic field exposure can enhance tumor sensitivity to radiation.
Translational research will expand to investigate how various DNA repair gene alterations affect RT outcomes, aiming to tailor treatments to individual’s unique genetic profiles. Lastly, the team is analyzing additional data from the completed preoperative RT clinical trial and preparing for a national cooperative group trial that aims to validate the approach in a larger, multi-institutional setting. A second trial, now in development, will test delivering the entire course of partial breast RT before surgery.
Biography
Bruce G. Haffty, MD is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, New Jersey Medical School, and the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. He is Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Programs at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences. His medical school training, internship, residency, and chief residency was conducted at Yale University. Dr. Haffty was a Professor of Yale’s Department of Therapeutic Radiology, served as residency program director from 1992-2004, and was Vice Chairman and Clinical Director from 2002-2005. He moved to the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Cancer Institute of New Jersey in 2005.
Dr. Haffty’s laboratory is devoted to novel molecular targets in radiation therapy for cancers and his team has several ongoing clinical and laboratory investigations related to radiation treatment of breast cancer and other malignancies. He has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles and 30 book chapters. In addition to a busy clinical practice, Dr. Haffty has served on numerous national committees related to research and education in breast cancer and radiation oncology. He is currently Deputy Editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Dr. Haffty is a Fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (FASTRO), American College of Radiology (FACR), and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO). He recently became an Honorary Member of the European Society of Radiology.
