LDCRC PI Amira Mahdi Leads Publication on Novel Combination Therapy for HER2+/ER+ Breast Cancer
The LDCRC congratulates Dr Amira Mahdi, LDCRC PI and member of the LDCRC Leadership Team, on her recent publication as lead author in npj Breast Cancer.
The paper, “Combining Orally Available Selective Estrogen Receptor Degraders with Pan-HER Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Neratinib in Pre-Clinical Models of HER2+/ER+ Breast Cancer,” investigates novel combination treatment strategies for HER2-positive, oestrogen receptor-positive (HER2+/ER+) breast cancer.
HER2+/ER+ breast cancer can be difficult to treat because cancer cells can use both the HER2 and oestrogen receptor (ER) pathways to grow. When one pathway is blocked by treatment, the cancer may use the other pathway to survive, making it harder to stop the disease.
In this study, researchers combined two drugs: camizestrant, which targets the oestrogen receptor, and neratinib, which targets HER2. The team found that using the drugs together worked better than using either drug on its own in laboratory and preclinical studies.
The researchers also discovered that blocking HER2 alone can increase activity in the oestrogen receptor pathway. Adding camizestrant helped reduce this effect, suggesting that targeting both pathways at the same time could be a more effective treatment strategy.
The research was carried out during Dr Mahdi's time at Dublin City University (DCU) and later at the UL School of Medicine. The project was supported by a Research Ireland Strategic Partnership Programme Award (ACORN) in collaboration with Puma Biotechnology. The work was supervised by Prof Denis Collins and Prof John Crown, and included collaboration with researchers at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
The findings improve our understanding of how breast cancer can become resistant to treatment and may help guide the development of more effective therapies in the future.
Congratulations to Dr Mahdi and all co-authors on this important achievement.
Read the full publication: here
