Recently, LBCA Executive Director Laurie Hutcheson interviewed two recipients of the AACR-Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance – Deborah Mueller Foundation Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Innovation and Discovery Grants. Dr. Julia Houthuijzen from the Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital and Dr. Carolina Reduzzi from Weill Medical College of Cornell University are recipients of two one-year $50,000 ILC research grants. One grant is studying ex vivo human ILC cultures to develop personalized ILC treatments and the other is studying comprehensive liquid biopsies to decipher lobular breast cancer metastasis. 

Dr. John Doski, who helped fund the grants through the Deborah Mueller Foundation Fund in memory of his wife and LBCA Board member Dr. Deborah Mueller who passed away precipitously in 2023 from metastatic lobular breast cancer, also joined the discussion. Partnering patient advocates, Julia Katherine Levine and Siobhan Freeney, discuss the status and promise of both research studies and why these exact studies are crucial from a patients’ perspective.