Researchers funded

Dr. Maggie Cheang

Dr. Maggie Chon U Cheang completed her PhD at the University of British Columbia in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Cheang will be conducting her research mainly within the Centre for Translational and Applied Genomics (CTAG), a Provincial Health Services Authority Laboratory at the British Columbia Cancer Agency, under the mentorship of Dr Karen Gelmon.

Dr. Cheang’s Rethink-funded project is “Development of clinical genomic assays to biological subclassify human breast tumors and predict various chemotherapeutic responses within and across molecular subtypes”.

Gene expression profiling studies have shown that human breast cancers are actually composed of several distinct biological subtypes. Patients with different subtypes have significant different survivals. There is a pressing need for improved therapeutic options for the aggressive forms of breast tumors. On the other hand, there are questions as to whether patients with tumors defined as low risk according to the biology need aggressive treatments such as multi-agents chemotherapy. Dr. Cheang’s research goal is to identify the optimal therapies for patient groups as defined by their molecular assays under development. She believes that this can be accomplished by performing retrospective analyses as well as prospective evaluation of tumor specimens from patients whom received defined treatment regimens. Hundreds of potentially significant genes defining key biological subtypes of Breast Cancer will be distilled on the basis of their clinical importance. In this fashion, she aims to identify the chemotherapeutic sensitivities of the different breast cancer subtypes. These research data will subsequently allow the design of clinical trials for cancer patients to receive tailored therapies. The ultimate goal is to potentially spare many patients needless toxicity and increase the effectiveness of treatment in other patients in addition to improving their quality of life.

Rethink is excited by Dr. Cheang’s research proposal. Her unusual training path, incorporating biostatistics, genomics, pathology and clinical trials research, has provided her with the skills and knowledge base needed to make a real impact on translational breast cancer research in Canada.

Dr. Marc Tischkowitz

Dr. Marc Tischkowitz is an MD and an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medical Genetics and Oncology at McGill University. Rethink funded Marc in 2006 and 2007. A major goal of the Rethink research program is to increase the number of clinician scientists in Canada. There is practically no funding in Canada for clinicians interested in pursuing breast cancer research. Clinicians bring a unique perspective to breast cancer research because they have an intimate awareness of patient issues. We are excited to offer young clinicians like Marc the opportunity to stay in the research field and make an impact.

Marc’s Rethink-funded project was entitled “Examining the Characterisation of the Fanconi Anemia and Bloom Syndrome Genes in Sporadic and Hereditary Cancer.” Marc’s mentor, Dr. William Foulkes at Lady Davis Institute at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, supervised the project.

Most breast cancer occurs sporadically (by chance) but approximately 5% of cases are due to a strong genetic predisposition. Over the last decade two of the genes that cause a familial susceptibility to breast cancer have been found and these are called BRCA1 and BRCA2. However, there are many families with a strong history of breast cancer where no BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation has been identified, implying that there must be other predisposition genes. Marc’s project looked at the possibility that an individual with a mutation in one copy of the FA/BS genes is at increased risk of breast cancer and that these genes may influence response to chemotherapy.

Marc was extremely successful with the work he produced during his Career Development Award. We were thrilled when in 2007 a news release hit the wire stating “McGILL-LED TEAM PROVIDES NEW CLUE TO FAMILY RISK FOR BREAST CANCER.” Thanks to our support of Marc, the work for this exciting breakthrough was partially funded by Rethink. Today Marc has developed an active research program into hereditary breast cancer and he is an author on over 50 publications. He’s a model of the type of young researchers we want to fund and a success story we are proud to have helped cultivate.

Click here to check out the news release and two of the major papers Marc published that relate to his work accomplished through our Rethink Career Development Award.

Cristina Tognon

Cristina Tognon a senior research associate working in the Breast Cancer Group within the Department of Molecular Oncology at the BC Cancer Research Centre. She was the recipient of one of Rethink Breast Cancer’s very first Career Development Awards, receiving her first of four years of funding in 2004. Just as Rethink’s small founding staff juggled maternity leaves at the time, Cristina juggled science and having children, giving birth to three children (including twins) during the duration of her funding. She was sending us baby pictures in-between updates on research findings. Rethink is excited to provide the support dedicated young researchers like Cristina need to focus on important breast cancer research, while establishing themselves in the research community.

Cristina’s research project funded by Rethink was entitled ETV6-NTRK3 Sporadic Breast Cancer Model System:  Targeting signaling pathways involved in mammary epithelial cell transformation. Her project focused on identifying genes involved in breast cancer metastasis using a novel breast cancer model system she developed in the lab. One of the main goals of her project was to discover useful diagnostic and prognostic markers for breast cancer based on the molecular targets identified during the screening process.

Cristina was also very successful with the work she produced through this project. She published two first author and one second author papers on breast cancer in Cancer Cell. Cancer Cell is a publication with high impact in the cancer research community and each of her publications were rigorously peer-reviewed. Through her experiments and subsequent publications, Cristina has been able to share significant new data on cancer cell migration and metastasis with the scientific community.

In her final report to Rethink, Cristina also highlighted the important skills acquisition and career development the Rethink grant provided to her, namely acquiring the confidence and skills to run an independent lab and being competitive for operational grants from larger, national granting bodies.

Read the major papers Cristina published that relate to her work accomplished through our Rethink Career Development Award: Article One & Article Two.

Quick fact

Research directed at understanding how and why tumours develop may result in new and effective methods of treatment that have fewer side effects than conventional chemotherapy.

Rethink's Mission

To continuously pioneer cutting-edge breast cancer education, support and research that speak fearlessly to the unique needs of young (or youngish) women.

Quick fact

For $35,000 to $70,000 per year, a Career Development Awardcan help a young researcher pursue a lifesaving project from beginning to end.