The ILC research that LBCA has funded spans the critical body of research that further defines the unique aspects that drive ILC and explores promising new prospects for imaging and treatment.
Topics that have been or are being addressed currently include:
- Studying the potential for AI supported breast imaging to improve ILC detection
- Examining options for better imaging of metastatic progression or response to treatment
- Evaluating the efficacy of liquid biopsy tests for predicting or detecting recurrences of ILC and monitoring metastatic progressions
- Examining unique aspects of metastatic ILC that make the cells grow or spread
- Delving into the unique biology of ILC and how it affects how/when/why ILC responds to or begins to resist endocrine treatments
- Researching how the environment that surrounds a metastatic ILC cell contributes to the development of the metastasis and how the immune system interacts with those cancer cells in that environment to better understand how/why metastatic ILC cells thrive there.
- Researching how to prevent ILC cells that have remained dormant in the body from “waking up” and causing ILC metastasis
- Researching treatment resistance through a unique post mortem tissue donation program;
The research that results from LBCA’s grant funding typically results first in learnings being presented at breast cancer conferences such as the (SABCS) San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO)-Breast. The results of studies we fund then frequently form the foundation for additional research on the topic and in some cases, will lead eventually to clinical trials or larger clinical studies testing a new imaging method or potential treatment. The “research-to-practice process” can feel painstakingly slow. But we are excited that thanks in great part to LBCA’s contributions, there has been an exponential increase in the interest in and focus on studying ILC in the past several years! We are on the path towards new methods of detection and ILC-specific treatments.
As the “small but mighty” organization that LBCA is it would not be possible for us to manage the demanding administration of a competitive scientific grant application review, selection and monitoring process without our partnership with organizations with the infrastructure to do this type of grant administration work. Our partners have included:
- AACR-American Association of Cancer Research;
- Conquer Cancer (the ASCO-American Society of Clinical Oncology-Foundation);
- Breast Cancer Research Foundation;
- SNMMI-Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging; and
- Susan G. Komen Foundation.
We are also grateful that in some cases, several of these organizations (SNMMI, Komen, and BCRF-Breast Cancer Research Foundation) have provided matched grant funds for our ILC specific grants as well–which extends LBCA’s grant dollars even further. To date our partners have contributed $375,000 towards our $3.055M grant making total.
We look forward to sharing with you results from LBCA funded ILC studies as they are released or published in scientific journals. Thank you again for your support of this important work!
Mason Mitchell-Daniels, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Research