HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post

Lani · 11-10-2007, 05:49 PM

Michael Clarke the person who first "discovered" the breast cancer stem cell and he was adamant that the best thing one could do would be to try to get breast cancer patients organized in a way to donate their tissues in ways that would get around the bulky constraints imposed by HIPAA (patient privacy laws)

At a recent AACR (cancer researcher association ) meeting on advances in breast cancer about three weeks ago I met Dr. Glenn Deng, who has developed a machine utilizing a different technology than the Cell Search (which uses immunomagnetism and EPCAM as I understand it) to identify circulating tumor cells and then goes on to find the markers/genes on the individual circulating tumor cells. I discussed with him that it was my impression that many of the ladies here would be more than happy to donate some blood and or a bit of their old biopsy to help research into her2+ breast cancer progress faster (even more so if they were informed of their own findings!)

The nice part of his technology is that it can get similar information to gene expression profiles which normally require fresh frozen specimen(for retrieval of DNA), when almost every breast cancer patient has their specimen fixed in paraffin. If indeed they can get information from just circulating tumor cells (from a simple blood draw) and they can follow it during the course of treatment and during the time after treatment, this might potentially save breast cancer patients from having to wait 10 and 15 years before they decide which is the best AI, which tumors are resistant to AIs, which tumors are sensitive to anthracyclines, taxanes, herceptin, tykerb, etc

I have contacted Dr. Deng since meeting him at the AACR meeting and will
ask him to make a specific proposal that I could perhaps bring back to you here. I have also approached Dr. David Hirschberg at Stanford who is looking into the immune system of normal people and those with various cancers which elude the immune system, but such research is still in its infancy as what is normal has not yet been adequately defined.

It is one thing to have an idea, another to be able to get a researcher interested, have the researcher get funding , get people organized to donate their specimen/blood, and yet another to figure out the legality/privacy/ownership issues, etc.

I hope our sorrow at Alaska's loss of her friend motivates enough here to
see if we can do something constructive to move things forward faster!

11-10-2007, 05:49 PM	#25
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,778	I have personally spoken with Michael Clarke the person who first "discovered" the breast cancer stem cell and he was adamant that the best thing one could do would be to try to get breast cancer patients organized in a way to donate their tissues in ways that would get around the bulky constraints imposed by HIPAA (patient privacy laws) At a recent AACR (cancer researcher association ) meeting on advances in breast cancer about three weeks ago I met Dr. Glenn Deng, who has developed a machine utilizing a different technology than the Cell Search (which uses immunomagnetism and EPCAM as I understand it) to identify circulating tumor cells and then goes on to find the markers/genes on the individual circulating tumor cells. I discussed with him that it was my impression that many of the ladies here would be more than happy to donate some blood and or a bit of their old biopsy to help research into her2+ breast cancer progress faster (even more so if they were informed of their own findings!) The nice part of his technology is that it can get similar information to gene expression profiles which normally require fresh frozen specimen(for retrieval of DNA), when almost every breast cancer patient has their specimen fixed in paraffin. If indeed they can get information from just circulating tumor cells (from a simple blood draw) and they can follow it during the course of treatment and during the time after treatment, this might potentially save breast cancer patients from having to wait 10 and 15 years before they decide which is the best AI, which tumors are resistant to AIs, which tumors are sensitive to anthracyclines, taxanes, herceptin, tykerb, etc I have contacted Dr. Deng since meeting him at the AACR meeting and will ask him to make a specific proposal that I could perhaps bring back to you here. I have also approached Dr. David Hirschberg at Stanford who is looking into the immune system of normal people and those with various cancers which elude the immune system, but such research is still in its infancy as what is normal has not yet been adequately defined. It is one thing to have an idea, another to be able to get a researcher interested, have the researcher get funding , get people organized to donate their specimen/blood, and yet another to figure out the legality/privacy/ownership issues, etc. I hope our sorrow at Alaska's loss of her friend motivates enough here to see if we can do something constructive to move things forward faster!