Guilherme Nader-Marta, MD

Improving treatments for aggressive metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.

Impact

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that often occurs in younger Black women. Treatment options for this type of cancer when it spreads to other parts of the body (a process called metastasis) are limited. The standard treatment for metastatic TNBC (mTNBC) has traditionally been chemotherapies which are often associated with significant side effects. Although recent advances have allowed the incorporation of new therapies, they only work well for some patients and are usually only able to keep the disease under control for a limited time. For this reason, innovative and effective therapeutic alternatives are needed for this disease.

What’s next

Some mTNBC have high levels of a protein called Prostate Specific Membrane Antigen (PSMA), which has been successfully used as a target for treatment in patients with prostate cancer. The treatment, called Lutetium-PSMA, has prolonged patients’ survival in men with prostate cancer compared to standard treatments. The aim of Dr. Nader-Marta’s Conquer Cancer research, supported by BCRF, is to evaluate the efficacy of Lutetium-PSMA in patients with mTNBC who have progressed on other treatments.