Research Interests
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer found in women and results in the death of 46,000 women each year in the US. An important characteristic of tumor malignancy and the major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with cancer is the ability of tumor cells to metastasize to distant sites in the body. Thus, a major focus of the research in my laboratory is the development of chemopreventive strategies designed to control or prevent the metastatic process. In this research we have developed unique models of cellular metastasis which are employed to study tumor cell motility and the metastatic process; compared the antimetastatic activity of candidate antiestrogenic compounds using human breast cancer cell lines; examined mechanisms of breast cancer cell motility and changes in tumor cell morphology; identified endogenous growth factors that enhance tumor cell motility and metastasis and identified novel therapeutic targets for the treatment or prevention of cancer metastasis.

Based on the results of our previous studies with Keratinocyte Growth Factor (KGF), and the existing literature, it appears that KGF would be an ideal therapeutic target, since it is produced by stromal tissue surrounding breast tumors, appears to be involved in premalignant progression of breast epithelial cells and may act as an early signal in tumor cell proliferation and the initiation of the metastatic process. We have shown that KGF produces massive stimulation of human breast cancer cells in culture and metastatic development in nude mose xenografts. These results indicate that KGF is an early signal in the progression and metastatic development of breast cancer, and thus inhibition of KGF/KGFR and related signal transduction would be an ideal and novel therapeutic target.

The goal of our current research is to examine the role of KGF in the metastatic progression of breast cancer and to identify KGF inhibitors that can be employed to reduce of prevent breast cancer metastasis. The results of our studies may lead to the development of a new class therapeutic agents for the treatment and/or prevention of breast cancer and its metastatic spread.