/ 202 SPOTLIGHT /
Battling breast cancer
on two fronts
Local scientist studies cancer in the lab, supports survivors around the Valley
by Kimberly Hosey
O
ne might think that dedicating
your life to one cancer-fighting
mission is doing enough for breast
cancer survivors and victims.
Bodour Salhia doesn’t think so. She
supports breast cancer research from both
“sides,” joining in fundraising efforts like
the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure –
and doing the actual research in the lab.
Salhia is a researcher from Chandler
working at the Translational Genomics
Institute in Phoenix, where she studies
genomics, cancer, molecular biology and
personalized medicine.
As a scientist, communicator and
patient advocate; Salhia is intimately
familiar with the problem of cancer in
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the general sense as well as in the difficult
specifics, and she shares that expertise
with cancer survivors in the Valley.
Salhia studies what makes breast cancer
metastasize – or spread – to other organs,
such as the brain or bones. Salhia’s area of
research, genomics, focuses on the genetic
material of a cell and how it develops,
functions or can mutate to trigger cancer.
“Once a patient develops metastatic
breast cancer, the survival really
plummets,” Salhia says. She’s optimistic,
however, that “being able to predict
metastasis very very early on might
eventually lead to preventative measures”
that might save people from the spread
of cancer.
202 magazine / october 2013 / 202magazine.com
Salhia is hopeful that as the many
diverse factors affecting the development
of cancer become better understood,
new therapies can be developed and
tested, eventually leading to personalized
medicine that treats each person on an
individual level to eliminate the root
causes of cancer.
The research is abstract, extremely
detailed and brings together many
different areas of expertise (all strongly
represented at TGEN) to bear on the
problem of cancer. Genomics might be
foreign to most, but the idea of coming
together to tackle the intimidating and
ever-morphing problem of cancer should
sound familiar to many cancer survivors.