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Over 4000 square feet of laboratory
space is behind doors that our patients never enter.
The research arm of the Elliott-Elliott-Head Center,
The Mastology Research Institute, is a state-of-the-art
research facility, one of the most complete and advanced
breast cancer research centers in the United States.
Researchers at the Center, including Dr. Robert Elliott
and Dr. Jonathan Head, have been involved in work to
find answers about what causes a tumor to grow, which
chemical substances can slow or even stop a tumor’s
growth, and what signs in a woman’s tumor tissue,
or new signs in the blood, predict or signal early recurrence.
Their discoveries and advances have been instrumental
in improving treatment success rates for patients at
the EEH Center. Because of their research, the medical
team can identify new cancerous growths and recurrences
while they are still small and more easily treated,
and implement immediate treatment that could save a
woman’s life. Dr. Elliott and his team of researchers
have also developed a patented breast cancer vaccine.
Our Current Research
Innovative Chemotherapy
The typical drugs used in cancer chemotherapy are very
toxic and thus cause many undesirable side effects.
We have found that by binding chemotherapeutic agents
to transferrin we can target the drug to the cancer
and deliver effective chemotherapy without the undesirable
side effects.
Immunology
Two vaccine programs are available for breast and prostate
cancer. The breast cancer vaccine program uses autologous
and allogeneic tumor cells, tumor marker proteins, and
the biological adjuvants GM-CSF and IL-2 in a vaccine
to stimulate our patients’ immune responses to
their own tumors. The prostate cancer vaccine only uses
tumor marker proteins (PSA, etc.), as autologous prostate
cancer cells are not readily available.
Infrared Imaging
Infrared imaging of the breast is being further developed
and improved for risk assessment, diagnosis and prognosis
in breast cancer. There is also an attempt to use infrared
imaging to follow therapeutic responses in breast cancer
patients. We are presently participating in a government
sponsored multi-institutional study to integrate state-of-the-art
infrared imaging technology and computer assisted image
analysis into the clinical reading of breast infrared
imaging.
Stereotactic breast biopsy
We were one of the original proponents of this technology
and we determined in a prospective study the low false
negative rate of this technology—the technology
did not miss the tumors. Currently we are investigating
the use of radiofrequency ablation (killing the breast
cancer cells with heat) to obliterate nonpalpable breast
cancer lesions that have been localized and biopsied
by the stereotactic core needle biopsy technique.
Oncogenes
We are presently developing methods of measuring oncogenes
and relating them to diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy
selection for breast cancer patients. Preclinical studies
are proceeding to demonstrate that antisense to genes
involved in iron metabolism (ferritin and transferrin
receptors) can inhibit breast cancer cell growth. We
hope to initiate clinical trials in the not too distant
future.
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