Dr. Carlos Arteaga of UT Southwestern Medical Center is the recipient of a $600,000 Susan G. Komen organization research grant that will help him improve precision in breast cancer treatment while preventing drug resistance. Arteaga serves as the Director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center and Associate Dean of Oncology Programs at UT Southwestern.
While 90 percent of breast cancer patients survive for 5 years, more than 40,000 women still die from the disease each year in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute. According to the Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin journal, 90 percent of failures in chemotherapy treatment are during the invasion and metastasis of cancers related to drug resistance. The grant is part of a $26 million effort for by the Komen organizations to fight drug resistance and develop new treatments.
Arteaga’s work includes looking into how estrogen receptor-positive breast cancers become hormone-independent and develop resistance to current anti-estrogen therapies. He is internationally known for his work in laboratory-based translational research and advancing care for breast cancer patients, and is a former president of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“As cancer detection and treatment have become increasingly sophisticated, mortality for breast cancer has declined, but we must continue to push for still better treatments, including improved understanding of the mechanisms of drug resistance. I believe the next 10 years will be transformative in how we understand and treat cancer, and this grant from Susan G. Komen will contribute greatly to that change,” said Arteaga, who holds the Lisa K. Simmons Distinguished Chair in Comprehensive Oncology, in a statement.
