THREAT
Alexzander Asea, PhD, an internationally recognized scientist, and his team at
Scott & White Healthcare have developed a drug that could become an effective
treatment for an aggressive form of breast cancer. A group of breast cancer
survivors in Central Texas has taken an interest in this work and is making
real contributions to his success.
T
he drug that Dr. Asea and his
team have developed targets
triple-negative breast cancer,
which accounts for up to 15 percent of
breast cancer cases, but 25 percent of
all breast cancer deaths. In 2008, more
than 170,000 women worldwide were
diagnosed with this form of breast cancer.
Triple-negative breast cancer spreads
quickly and affects African Americans,
Hispanics, and premenopausal women at a
higher rate than other breast cancers do.
(For more information, send an e-mail
message to [email protected].)
The disease gets its name because
of negative testing for estrogen and
progesterone receptors and negative testing
for the human epidermal growth factor
receptor 2 (HER2) gene overexpression.
Without these receptors, triple-negative
breast cancer resists the therapies used
against other breast cancers. The only
treatment available is chemotherapy, which
Dr. Asea says is not always effective.
Dr. Asea is the director of the Division
of Investigative Pathology, and holds the
Effie and Wofford Cain Centennial Chair
in Clinical Pathology. A world-renowned
cancer researcher, Dr. Asea came to Scott
& White in 2005 after doing research at
Harvard University and Boston University,
both in Boston, Massachusetts.
Five years ago Dr. Asea began
developing a new drug, recently named
NampEVA, which has been found to stop
the growth of breast tumors in laboratory
mice. “What we find very unique [about
this drug] is that it also activates the
immune system,” he says. The fact that
NampEVA turns on the immune system is
“We’re really in a unique
position . . . to have the
development of the
drug right here, the
manufacturing of the
drug right here, and the
Phase I and II [trials]
right here. There are
not many centers
around the world that
can boast that.”
—Dr. Alexzander Asea
Dr. Alexzander Asea and team members (front row) Princess Bempong, Punit Kaur,
(back row) Paola Rosas, and Nagaraja Ganachari-Mallappa.
www.sw.org | Winter 11 THE CATALYST
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