Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD

Cynthia X. Ma, MD, PhD is a physician scientist with a research focus in breast cancer biomarker and targeted therapeutics development. Dr. Ma received her medical degree from Beijing Medical University and earned her PhD in developmental biology from the University of Cincinnati. She completed her post-doctoral training at New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina and her fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She has been on the faculty at Washington University since 2005. She is the Clinical Director of the Breast Cancer Program in the Section of Medical Oncology, Division of Oncology at Washington University.

She has designed and conducted several mechanism-based early phase trials of novel agents, including UCN-01, BKM120, MK-2206, palbociclib, IMC-A12, temsirolimus, neratinib, among others, in patients with resistant breast cancer. She led a phase II trial of neratinib for patients with metastatic HER2 mutated breast cancer (MutHER trial) and demonstrated the activity of neratinib in this patient population. In collaboration with NCI and CTEP, she contributed to the development of several small molecule inhibitors, including MK2206 and temsirolimus, which target the PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway in overcoming endocrine resistance, in addition to a phase I/II trial that evaluated the potential of cixutumumab, an IGF-1R antibody, in restoring mTOR inhibitor efficacy in metastatic hormone receptor positive breast cancer. She also led the phase II neoadjuvant trial of MK2206 in combination with anastrozole in patients with newly diagnosed clinical stage II to III estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.

Dr. Ma is the study chair for the ongoing phase III Alliance trial A011106 (ALTERNATE trial) to validate neoadjuvant biomarker endpoint as surrogate markers of long-term outcome and to investigate endocrine resistance mechanisms for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Her laboratory has focused on biomarkers and resistance mechanisms for agents that target cell cycle and PI3K pathway through analysis of clinical specimens and preclinical studies using breast cancer cell lines and patient-derived xenograft models.