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As Breast Cancer Awareness Month begins, two College of Medicine cancer researchers have received statewide grants to support their innovative projects to fight a disease that strikes one in eight American women.

Alicja Copik and Debbie Altomare each received $100,000 from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation (FBCF), a group focused on supporting innovative research that will create new and better ways to diagnose, treat and perhaps cure the disease.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, dedicated to promoting awareness, screening and prevention of the disease.

Annette Khaled, who leads the College of Medicine 麻豆精品 S檚 Cancer Research Division, noted that UCF competed with older, larger programs such as the University of Miami, the Moffitt Cancer Center and the University of Florida to earn the funding. Khaled received UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 first FBCF grant in 2012 and since then, seven College of Medicine faculty researchers have earned funding totaling almost $1 million. This is the first year two College of Medicine cancer researchers have earned the state cancer support in the same year.

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Copik focuses her research on better arming the body 麻豆精品 S檚 natural killer (NK) cells to wipe out cancer. NK cells are the first line of defense in warding off pathogens, such as viruses. Through genetic engineering and nanoparticle technology, Copik has developed NK cells that are better at recognizing and killing cancer cells. Such therapies are much easier on patients. NK cells can do their work without the debilitating impact that comes with current cancer treatments like chemotherapy and radiation. And these energized NK cells can be donated to cancer patients from complete strangers without a risk of rejection.

The FBCF grant will help Copik refine her technologies to specifically fight breast cancer. She will also study how the most recent and still experimental treatment strategies against metastatic breast cancer may affect patients 麻豆精品 S� own NK cells. Because NK cells clear any residual tumor cells in the body, it 麻豆精品 S檚 important that new treatments don 麻豆精品 S檛 deplete the body 麻豆精品 S檚 natural fighters. With this knowledge, scientists can design better clinical trials and create more combination therapies that incorporate NK cells as additional cancer fighters.

“We need to harness innovation and innovative thinking to improve care.” 麻豆精品 S� Alicja Copik, associate professor of medicine

Copik 麻豆精品 S檚 NK therapies are currently in clinical trials. She is also researching whether removing one of molecular 麻豆精品 S渂rakes 麻豆精品 S� that cancer cells use to avoid being killed 麻豆精品 S� either through antibodies or genetic engineering 麻豆精品 S� can enhance NK cell anti-tumor power. In initial laboratory testing, this approach has shown strong results in killing neuroblastoma cancer cell lines, the most common cancer in infants.

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Altomare has vast experience in cancer biology. Her focus is on the cellular pathways that can signal cancer cells to grow or help immunity cells better fight the disease. She is examining the role that inflammation plays in pancreatic cancer 麻豆精品 S� one of the deadliest forms of the disease 麻豆精品 S� and harnessing the body 麻豆精品 S檚 innate immunity to create new therapeutics for ovarian cancer.

One of the challenges of breast cancer research is the heterogeneity of breast tumors 麻豆精品 S� meaning one patient may have a variety of cells in their tumor that is different from other patients. That makes it difficult for researchers and physicians to determine what exact molecular alternations occurred to cause the cancer and prescribe individualized treatments.

Altomare 麻豆精品 S檚 lab at the College of Medicine has been studying a particular growth factor called FGFR4 (fibroblast growth factor receptor 4) in breast cancer cells. Her work has discovered that while encouraging the growth of cancer cells, the growth receptor may also suppress immune cells.

She will use the FBCF funding to examine how the presence and absence of the growth factor and pathways in specific tumors impact their ability to spread and how they impact immunity. Her hope is that the discoveries will help create new metastatic breast cancer therapies.

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The College of Medicine 麻豆精品 S檚 Cancer Research Division, housed in the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences, focuses its work on a variety of areas, including how patients 麻豆精品 S� genes play a role in their cancer risk, what causes cancer and cancer metastasis and discovering new ways to harness the body 麻豆精品 S檚 immune system to fight cancer.