The UW Research on Women’s Health Scholar Program (RoWHS) provides interdisciplinary career development opportunities for early-stage faculty who are conducting women’s health and sex differences research, with the goal of helping the faculty transition to independent funding. This year, the Department of Surgery was very fortunate to have two faculty receive funding under the program, which is administered by the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and supported by funding from the School of Medicine and Public Health.
Division of Surgical Oncology Assistant Professor Anna Beck, MD will receive $75,000 for one year to support her research, which aims to identify markers of field cancerization and breast cancer development in patients with lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS). LCIS is a benign breast lesion that is associated with an increased lifetime risk of developing breast cancer.
“Patients with LCIS can reduce their risk of breast cancer by as much as 50% if they take anti-estrogen therapy,” explained Beck. “However, not knowing which patients with LCIS are at the highest risk of developing breast cancer makes it very difficult to counsel them about taking these medications, which have significant side effects that impact quality of life.”
Beck plans to use her RoWHS award to study patients with and without LCIS to identify the underlying drivers of breast cancer development after an LCIS diagnosis and to develop biomarkers that can be used to better predict breast cancer risk. Her long-term goal is to better advise patients with LCIS on their individual level of risk for breast cancer so more informed decisions about risk reduction and management can be made.
Laura Bozzuto, MD, MS, Assistant Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, will also receive $75,000 for one year to support her research on methods of ovarian function suppression for pre-menopausal survivors of hormone-receptor positive breast cancer. For patients with this form of breast cancer, overall survival can be increased and the risk of cancer recurrence can be significantly reduced by suppressing release of estrogen, a hormone that is produced by the ovaries. However, the options for estrogen suppression have different risks and levels of patient burden.
“One option is surgical removal of the ovaries, which for most is a simple day-surgery procedure, but it also poses the standard risks associated with surgery, results in permanent loss of fertility, and places the patient in irreversible early menopause, which has its own set of adverse health consequences” explained Bozzuto. “The alternative is to receive a monthly injection of a medication that stops the ovaries from producing estrogen. This option retains the patient’s fertility and only temporarily places them in menopause so it can be reversed if there are significant side effects, but there are ongoing costs and inconveniences associated with the medication and associated clinical visits.”
Bozzuto will survey clinicians and interview patients to learn about the factors that influence decisions to pursue surgical vs. medical forms of ovarian function suppression, and identify gaps that exist in this decision-making process. In the long-term, she aims to develop communication tools and decision aids that can help patients and their oncology team make treatment decisions that support the patient’s goals.
With the support of their RoWHS awards, both Beck and Bozzuto will also participate in a variety of seminars and trainings to support their career development. In addition, the Hendricks Professorship in Breast Cancer Research, a fund established in 2015 by Diane M. Hendricks to support the breast cancer program at the Department of Surgery, will provide an additional $25,000 in matching funds to each faculty member to further support their research and career development activities.