SAB Member ILC Research
Our Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) members not only help ensure that information developed and shared by LBCA is current, relevant, and accurate, but they also perform their own ILC research.
The Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance’s (LBCA) scientific advisors are an internationally renowned group of clinicians and scientists with expertise in ILC research. Below are several members’ most recent research studies. You can find a complete collection of ILC research from our SAB members and others in our ILC Publications Library.
Recent Studies and Publications by Scientific Advisory Board Members
2025
- SAB Members Dr. Anita Mamtani, Dr. Rita Mukhtar, and Dr. Fresia Pareja co-authored an article titled, “Invasive lobular carcinoma: Strategies and perspectives from the lobular breast cancer research group,” published in Cancer Treatment Reviews, August 2025.
- SAB Chair Dr. Jason Mouabbi co-authored an article titled “Immediate and ipsilateral recurrence rates and treatment recommendations for patients with pleomorphic and florid lobular carcinoma in situ” published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, July 2025.
- SAB Member Dr. Daniel Stover co-authored an article titled, “Invasive lobular carcinoma: integrated multi-omics analysis reveals silencing of Argininosuccinate synthase and upregulation of nucleotide biosynthesis in tamoxifen resistance,” published in Cell Death & Disease, July 2025.
- SAB Member Dr. Matthew Sikora co-authored an article titled, “Radiation therapy for lobular breast cancer: opportunities and challenges for leveraging radiosensitivity,” published in npj Breast Cancer, July 2025
- SAB Member Dr. Rita Mukhtar
- Co-authored an article titled, “Socioeconomic status impacts tumor biology, treatment, and outcomes in over 200,000 patients with invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast: an analysis of the National Cancer Database,” published in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, June 2025.
- Co-authored Accuracy of Breast MRI for Surgical Planning After Neoadjuvant Therapy for Patients with Invasive Lobular Carcinoma, published in Annals of Surgical Oncology, June 2025.
- SAB Member Dr. Matthew Sikora co-authored four articles published by Endocrinology, April 2025:
- Estrogen Receptor co-opts Mediator of DNA Damage Checkpoint 1 (MDC1) to Drive Epigenomic Remodeling and Transcriptional Regulation in ILC Cells
- Targeting DNA Repair Dysfunction in Lobular Breast Cancer by PARP Inhibition
- Genetic E-Cadherin Loss Creates a Distinct Phenotype in an Early ILC Tumorigenesis Model
- Transcriptomic Analysis of MDC1 as a Novel Coregulator of Estrogen Receptor in ILC
- SAB Member Dr. Maxine S. Jochelson co-authored an article titled, “Comparison of Contrast-enhanced Mammography and Low-Energy Imaging with or without Supplemental Whole-Breast US in Breast Cancer Detection,” published by the Radiological Society of North America, March 2025.
- SAB Member Dr. Patrick WB Derksen co-authored an article titled, “Afadin loss induces breast cancer metastasis through destabilisation of E‐cadherin to F‐actin linkage,” published in the Journal of Pathology, March 2025.
- SAB Member Dr. Gary Ulaner co-authored an article titled, “18F-Fluoroestradiol PET/CT for Predicting Benefit from Endocrine Therapy in Patients with Estrogen Receptor–Positive Breast Cancer: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis,” published in Journal of Nuclear Medicine, March 2025.
2024
- SAB Member Dr. Gary Ulaner co-authored an article titled ER-Targeted PET for Initial Staging and Suspected Recurrence in ER-Positive Breast Cancer, published in JAMA Network Open, July 2024.
- SAB Member Dr. Patrick Derksen co-authored an article titled Integration of Pathological Criteria and Immunohistochemical Evaluation for Invasive Lobular Carcinoma Diagnosis: Recommendations From the European Lobular Breast Cancer Consortium in Modern Pathology, April 2024.
- SAB Members Dr. Rachel C. Jankowitz and Dr. Patrick W.B. Derksen collaborated with LBCA staff, patient advocates, LBCA’s ILC research grantee Dr. Karen Van Baelen, and other European ILC scientists and advocates on an article titled Reporting on invasive lobular breast cancer in clinical trials: a systematic review in npj Breast Cancer, March 2024.
- SAB Member Dr. Maxine S Jochelson, along with LBCA Executive Director Laurie Hutcheson, collaborated on a paper titled Breast Radiologists’ Perceptions on the Detection and Management of Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Most Agree Imaging Beyond Mammography Is Warranted in the Journal of Breast Imaging, March 2024.
- LBCA SAB Chair Dr. Jason Mouabbi authored the paper Efficacy of Single-Agent Chemotherapy in Endocrine Therapy-Refractory Metastatic Invasive Lobular Carcinoma in The Oncologist, March 2024.
- SAB Member Dr. Rita Mukhtar co-authored an article titled Circulating tumor cells in early lobular versus ductal breast cancer and their associations with prognosis in npj Breast Cancer, February 2024. The study aimed to determine whether levels of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood are different between patients with non-metastatic invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) compared to those with non-metastatic invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC).
- Dr. Mukhtar also authored a Letter to the Editor of Annals of Surgical Oncology concerning, Is Choosing Wisely Wise for Lobular Carcinoma in Patients over 70 Years of Age? A National Cancer Database Analysis of Sentinel Node Practice Patterns. Which received a response from the authors Nicole Goldhaber, MD, Thomas O’Keefe, MD and Sarah Blair, MD.
- SAB Members Dr. Matt Sikora and Dr. Rebecca Riggins, along with former SAB Chair Dr. Steffi Oesterreich, collaborated on a paper titled WNT4 regulates cellular metabolism via intracellular activity at the mitochondria in breast and gynecologic cancers in Cancer Research Communications, January 2024.
2023
- SAB Member Dr. Gary A. Ulaner is an author of a study called SNMMI Procedure Standard/EANM Practice Guideline for Estrogen Receptor Imaging of Patients with Breast Cancer Using 16α-[18F]Fluoro-17β-Estradiol PET published in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, December 2023.
- SAB Member Dr. Patrick Derksen is the senior author on Canonical Kaiso target genes define a functional signature that associates with breast cancer survival and the invasive lobular carcinoma histological type, published in December 2023 in The Journal of Pathology. The paper shows the development of a new ILC signature called KART. KART is based on ILC-specific biology, and associates with prognosis, the ILC histiotype, invasion, and slow growing cells. Comparative analyses showed that KART prognostically performed as well as LobSig.
- LBCA SAB Chair Dr. Jason Mouabbi was guest editor and author of chapters, along with SAB member Dr. Rita Mukhtar and other ILC researchers in an Educational Handbook published by Hospital Healthcare Europe entitled: Invasive Lobular cancer: Current evidence and clinical impact.
- SAB Member Dr. Matt Sikora published A Path to Precision Metabolic Treatment in Breast Cancer: Riluzole, Glutamate Signaling, and Invasive Lobular Carcinoma in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, December 2023.
- LBCA SAB Chair Jason Mouabbi, MD, is an author of Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast: A Comprehensive Review with Translational Insights. It was published online by Cancers in November 2023.
- SAB Member Dr. Rita Mukhtar is an author of a study titled Tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors with ovarian function suppression in pre-menopausal stage I-III lobular breast cancer. It was published in October 2023 by npj Breast Cancer. She is also an author of The impact of histologic subtype on primary site surgery in the management of metastatic lobular versus ductal breast cancer: a population based study from the National Cancer Database (NCDB), published online by Breast Cancer Research and Treatment in October 2023.
- SAB Members Dr. Fresia Pareja and Dr. Otto Metzger, along with former Scientific Advisors Dr. Steffi Oesterreich and Dr. Jorge Reis-Filho, published an article titled Clinicopathologic and genomic features of lobular like invasive mammary carcinoma: is it a distinct entity? in npj Breast Cancer, July 2023.
- SAB Members Dr. Maxine Jochelson and Dr. Rita Mukhtar are co-authors of an editorial titled Contrast mammography-a promising tool for the pre-operative evaluation of lobular breast cancer. The editorial was published by the European Journal of Radiology in July 2023.
- SAB Members Matt Sikora, PhD and Rebecca Riggins, PhD were authors of Unlocking the Mysteries of Lobular Breast Cancer Biology Needs the Right Combination of Preclinical Models published in AACR Journals, June 2023.
- SAB Member Dr. Rita Mukhtar is an author of Area Deprivation Index in Patients with Invasive Lobular Carcinoma of the Breast: Associations with Tumor Characteristics and Outcomes. This study was included in AACR’s Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention in May 2023.
- SAB Member Dr. Rita Mukhtar is the senior author of HER-2 low status in early-stage invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast: associated factors and outcomes in an institutional series Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. This article appeared in the April 2023 issue of Breast Cancer Research.
- SAB Founding Chair Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, co-authored the study Immune landscape in invasive ductal and lobular breast cancer reveals a divergent macrophage-driven microenvironment. It was published in Nature Cancer in March 2023. She is also an author of Mixed invasive ductal lobular carcinoma is clinically and pathologically more similar to invasive lobular than ductal carcinoma, published in the British Journal of Cancer in January 2023.
2022
- SAB Chair Dr. Jason Mouabbi is an author of Histology-based survival outcomes in hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer treated with targeted therapies. This study was published by npj Breast in December 2022.
- SAB Founding Chair Steffi Oesterreich, PhD, and SAB member Megan Kruse, MD, are among the co-authors of Clinicopathological Features and Outcomes Comparing Patients With Invasive Ductal and Lobular Breast Cancer, a large, collaborative study by three cancer centers that identified differences between invasive lobular carcinoma and invasive ductal carcinoma. The retrospective was published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in October 2022.
- Former SAB Chairs Rinath Jeselsohn, MD, and Otto Metzger, MD, are the co-senior authors of A Distinct Chromatin State Drives Therapeutic Resistance in Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer. This article was published in August 2022 in AACR’s Cancer Research, and the full article can be read here.
- SAB Member Patrick Derksen, PhD, is a co-author of the Current and future diagnostic and treatment strategies for patients with invasive lobular breast cancer appearing in the August 2022 edition of the Annals of Oncology. LBCA-funded researcher Karen Van Balean, MD, is the lead author of this publication.
- SAB Member Patrick Derksen, PhD, is also a co-author of Results of a worldwide survey on the currently used histopathological diagnostic criteria for invasive lobular breast cancer. The article was published in August 2022 in Modern Pathology.
- SAB Member Christos Sotirou, MD, PhD, is an author of Timing evolution of lobular breast cancer through phylogenetic analysis. It was first published online by e-BioMedicine in July 2022.
- SAB Member Rita Mukhtar, MD, authored The 21-Gene Recurrence Score in Clinically High-Risk Lobular and Ductal Breast Cancer: A National Cancer Database Study, which appeared in the Annals of Surgical Oncology.
- SAB Member Jason Mouabbi, MD, had his review Invasive lobular carcinoma: an understudied emergent subtype of breast cancer from Breast Cancer Research and Treatment appear in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, March 2022.