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Nadine M. Tung, MD
Director, Cancer Risk and Prevention Program
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Current Research
Goal: To determine which patients with early-stage, BRCA-driven breast respond best to chemotherapy.
Impact: Drs. Tung and Schnitt have been conducting a clinical trial that compares the effectiveness of standard chemotherapy to the chemotherapy drug cisplatin in early-stage breast cancer patients who have inherited mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Their findings could help identify which patients will benefit from cisplatin, which is typically not used to treat breast cancer.
What’s next: Having completed the trial, Drs. Tung and Schnitt are now preparing to report their results. In addition, they will analyze samples from the patients enrolled in the study to look for biomarkers that predict which patients respond best to each therapy.
Normally, BRCA genes produce proteins that help repair DNA damage. But this function is impaired in individuals who have mutations in these genes, which leads to breast and other forms of cancer. However, this makes BRCA-mutated cells vulnerable to treatments that cause DNA damage. Research suggests that the chemotherapy drug cisplatin may be effective in treating patients with BRCA-driven breast cancers because it causes a type of DNA damage that BRCA-deficient cells can’t repair. Drs. Tung and Schnitt aim to determine whether cisplatin may be better than standard chemotherapy in treating BRCA carriers with newly diagnosed breast cancer.
Full Research Summary
Research area: Determining the best treatment options for patients with inherited BRCA mutations and newly diagnosed breast cancer.
Impact: Although research has shown that the chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, improves outcomes for women with inherited BRCA mutations and with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), it is not clear which early-stage BRCA-positive breast cancer patients will benefit from cisplatin. Drs. Tung and Schnitt are conducting a randomized clinical trial to compare the efficacy of cisplatin and standard chemotherapy agents (i.e. doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide, AC) in women with early-stage breast cancer with inherited BRCA1/2 mutations. They hope their research will inform difficult treatment decisions for breast cancer patients with inherited BRCA1/2 mutations and discover valuable markers of treatment response.
Current investigation: Drs. Tung and Schnitt are working with Dr. Judy Garber—and teams from Boston and medical institutions across the country through the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC)—to collect and analyze samples from a rare group of breast cancer patients. Blood and tumor specimens from BRCA mutation carriers will be analyzed to identify markers that distinguish those who do better on cisplatin, when compared with standard chemotherapy treatment.
What she’s learned so far: Drs. Tung and Schnitt have completed accrual for the INFORM trial (NCT01670500) and have enrolled patients with both BRCA1 and BRCA2 inherited mutations. Valuable research biopsies have been collected from both TNBC and ER-positive breast cancer patients.
What’s next: The investigators hope to apply the information learned from this study to patients with other hereditary breast cancers.
Biography
Nadine Tung, MD is the Director of the Cancer Genetics and Prevention Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) which she established in 1997 to evaluate patients and families with hereditary cancer syndromes. She is also a breast medical oncologist and a member of the Dana-Farber Harvard Cancer Center as well as an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School. She graduated from Princeton University in 1980 and Harvard Medical School in 1984.
Dr. Tung's research focuses on hereditary causes of breast cancer as well as effective strategies for breast cancer prevention and treatment. Much of her research has focused on women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, studying the genetic and environmental factors that influence cancer development as well as the biology and prognosis of the breast cancers they develop. Through BCRF, she is overseeing a multi-center, national trial evaluating whether cisplatin is superior to standard chemotherapy for women with BRCA1/2 mutations and newly diagnosed breast cancer. Her research also focuses on identifying other inherited gene mutations that predispose to breast cancer. Other areas of Dr. Tung’s research include evaluating the prognosis and optimal treatment of triple negative breast cancer. Dr. Tung serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology as well as the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Cancer Prevention Committee and Cancer Genetics Subcommittee.
