Previous Year Event Recaps

Welcome/Purpose of Symposium
Susan F. Smith Center Leaders

M. Patricia Cronin Memorial Lecture
“Nervous Tumors: Cancer-derived vesicles promote nerve recruitment and treatment resistance in ovarian cancer”

Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD
The Franklin Payne Associate Professor of Pathology
Director, Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center; Director, Gynecologic Cancer Research, Basser Center for BRCA; Director, Abramson Translation Center of Excellence in Ovarian Cancer, University of Pennsylvania

Chair: Gerburg Wulf

• Arthur Lambert: p63/p73 are transcriptional drivers of cancer stem cells residing in an intermediate EMT state
• Rebecca Porter: Repeatome profiling identifies novel molecular biomarkers and therapeutic targets in epithelial ovarian cancer
• Nobuhiro Takahashi: A Personalized Approach to Identify and Target Ovarian Cancer Liabilities

SESSION II: Risk/Prevention/Clinical
Chair: Sara Tolaney

• Tengteng Wang: Post-diagnosis diabetes risk reduction diet and survival following breast cancer
• Tanya Keenan: A phase II study of cisplatin and the Wee1 inhibitor adavosertib in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC)
• Jan Heng: Tobacco use, alcohol consumption, and breast cancer somatic genomic alterations

J. Dirk Iglehart, MD Visiting Scholar Lecture
“Regulatory Strategies to Address Unmet Need in Breast Cancer”

Tatiana M. Prowell, MD
Breast Cancer Scientific Liaison, U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Associate Professor of Oncology, Breast Cancer Program, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

SESSION III: Drug Resistance/Animal Models
Chair: Patricia Donahoe

• Masa Aleckovic: Mammary tumor prevention by inhibition of TGF-beta signaling
• Akshaya Chandrasekaran: PAX8-directed nanotherapeutics for high-grade serous ovarian cancer
• Jia Zhou: Polymerase Theta Inhibition Overcomes PARP Inhibitor Resistance

SESSION IV: Tumor Biology/Immunology
Chair: Jean Zhao

• Johann Bergholz: Potentiating immunotherapy in PTEN-deficient triple-negative breast cancer by isoform-specific PI3Kβ inhibition
• Yihao Li: Enhancer activation mediates resistance to FGFR inhibitors in triple-negative breast cancer
• Francisco Hermida-Prado: Role of the estrogen receptor axis in the modulation of the immune response in ER+ Breast Cancers

Welcome/Purpose of Symposium
Susan F. Smith Center Leaders

M. Patricia Cronin Memorial Lecture
“Loss of Base Excision Repair Drives Drug Resistance in BRCA2 Mutant Ovarian Cancer"
Shailja Pathania, Ph.D.

Chair: Gerburg Wulf

• Rajula Elango: Coordination of stalled replication fork repair by Fanconi anemia gene product Slx4
• Doga Gulhan: Detecting the mutational signature of homologous recombination deficiency in clinical samples
• Mihriban Karaayvaz: Aneuploidy and suppressed DNA damage response define haploinsufficiency in breast tissues of BRCA2 mutation carriers

SESSION II: Risk/Prevention/Clinical
Chair: Rulla Tamimi

• Emma McGee: Plasma osteoprotegerin and breast cancer risk: A nested case-control study within the Nurses’ Health Study II
• Oana Zeleznik: Mammogram-derived texture features and risk of breast cancer
• Hanneke Poort: Predictors and Trajectories of Fatigue in Ovarian and Uterine Cancer

J. Dirk Iglehart, MD Visiting Scholar Lecture
“Unraveling the drivers of breast cancer: phenotypic plasticity meets mutations in long-tail genes”
Charlotte Kuperwasser, PhD
Director, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Convergence Laboratory (RBSCL)
Professor Developmental, Molecular & Chemical Biology
Tufts University School of Medicine 
(35-40 min talk, 10 mins questions)

SESSION III: Drug Resistance/Animal Models
Chair: Patricia Donahoe

• Carlos Gil del Alcazar: Immune related strategies for prevention of breast tumor initiation and progression
• Akshaya Chandrasekaran: PAX8-directed nanotherapeutics for high grade serous ovarian cancer
• Prabha Sarangi: The TRIP13 ATPase mediates PARP inhibitor resistance by promoting homologous recombination 

SESSION IV: Tumor Biology/Immunology
Chair: Jean Zhao 

• Kirsten Kubler: Tamoxifen-associated uterine corpus cancer is characterized by the lack of mutational activation in the PI3K-AKT-mTOR pathway
• Sonia Iyer: Novel Syngeneic Mouse Models of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma reveal distinct tumor microenvironments for Homologous Recombination -Deficient and -Proficient tumors
• Jennifer Guerriero: Harnessing Macrophages in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) to Overcome PARP Inhibitor Resistance

Welcome/Purpose of Symposium
Alan D’Andrea, M.D. - Ursula Matulonis, M.D. - Eric Winer, M.D.

KATHRYN FOX SAMWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE:
“Mechanisms that maintain genome stability”
Andre Nussenzweig, Ph.D.
NIH Distinguished Investigator, Laboratory of Genome Integrity
National Cancer Institute, Center for Cancer Research

Chair: Gerburg Wulf

• Hui Liu: Identifying and Targeting Sporadic Oncogenic Genetic Aberrations in Mouse Models of Triple Negative Breast Cancer
• Johnathan R. Whetstine: Balancing Lysine Methylation Impacts Site-Specific DNA Copy Gains Associated with Aggressive Disease
• Nicholas A. Willis: BRCA1 suppresses genomic instability specific to defects in stalled fork repair in mammalian cells

SESSION II: Clinical/Translational
Chair: Patricia Donahoe

• Adrienne G. Waks: The immune microenvironment in hormone receptor-positive breast cancer patients and relationship to treatment outcome following preoperative chemotherapy plus bevacizumab
• Anniina Färkkilä: DNA damage- and immune profiling with highly multiplexed tissue immunofluorescence (t-CycIF) in high-grade serous ovarian cancer
• Golnaz Morad: Using proteomics profiling to elucidate the interactions of breast cancer-derived exosomes with the blood brain barrier

M. PATRICIA CRONIN MEMORIAL LECTURE:
“Reprogramming the tumor microenvironment and T cells for ovarian cancer immunotherapy”
Kunle Odunsi, M.D., Ph.D.
Cancer Center Deputy Director, The M. Steven Piver Professor and Chair, Department of Gynecologic Oncology, Executive Director, Center for Immunotherapy, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

SESSION III: Risk/Prevention 
Chair: Rulla Tamimi 

• Cheng Peng: Transcriptomic network analysis reveals molecular mechanisms linking radon exposure to breast cancer etiology in breast tumor and tumor-adjacent tissues
• Claire H. Kim: Erythrocyte membrane fatty acids and breast cancer risk by tumor tissue expression in the Nurses’ Health Study II
• Motohiro Kano: Concurrent MIS/AMH treatment during chemotherapy preserves the ovarian reserve and fertility

SESSION IV: Tumor Biology
Chair: Jean Zhao 

• Johann Bergholz: PI3Kβ mediates immune evasion in PTEN-deficient triple-negative breast cancer
• Constantia Pantelidou: The covalent CDK12 Inhibitor MFH290 has monotherapy activity in homologous recombination repair-deficient breast and ovarian cancer models and reverses PARP inhibitor resistance
• Sarah J. Hill: Rapid assessment of DNA repair inhibitors and checkpoint blockade efficacy in short term patient-derived ovarian cancer organoids

“Targeting Galectin 3 Action for Tumor Growth Suppression and Metastasis”