Professor Jill Bargonetti’s New Research May Lead to More Effective Treatments for Breast Cancer

PNAS, the journal of the National Academy of Sciences, has published an important paper by Jill Bargonetti, a Hunter cancer biologist. Bargonetti’s paper presents the results of new research exploring protein diversity in cells with the kind of genetic mutations linked to “triple negative” breast cancer.

Because up to 25% of breast cancer patients suffer from the “triple negative” form, which is not treatable by hormone therapy, medical science is desperately seeking other therapies. At Hunter’s new laboratory in the Belfer Research Building, Bargonetti has focused on mutant p53 proteins, taking a big step toward understanding how the multiple proteins function and how they might be blocked. Her research suggests that a combination therapy that uses a “cocktail” of drugs rather than one single drug, may more effectively block those proteins – just as combination therapy has been become the treatment standard for HIV.

“This is a significant advance in the fight against breast cancer. It opens up new directions that researchers everywhere can now take,” said Mark Hauber, acting associate provost for research at Hunter.