Additional 2015 MBCN Research Leadership Award recipients included Dr. Rita Nanda and Dr. Steven Chmura

Dr. Rita Nanda’s research has been directed toward the treatment of triple-negative metastatic breast cancer. She has sought to identify novel anti-tumor treatments, such as using the drug pembrolizumab, to activate the body’s immune system in these patients. Immunotherapy has been shown to improve patient outcomes in advanced lung cancer and advanced melanoma, and Dr. Nanda’s research advances knowledge about using immunotherapy in metastatic breast cancer. (Here’s Dr. Nanda’s triple negative presentation from MBCN’s 2012 national conference.)

Dr. Steven Chmura is leading a national team of radiation oncologists in a national Phase II/III open trial that randomizes breast cancer patients with only 1-2 metastases, called oligometastatic breast cancer, to compare survival outcomes in standard of care therapy with or without stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) and/or surgical ablation. Mertz said the Research Leadership Award from MBCN insures that participating study sites can perform needed biomarker tests of study participants. Outcomes of the trial could impact how metastatic disease is treated in the future in a subset of patients. Here is a copy of Dr. Chmura’s presentation: Chmura talk_10_27_15. For an overview of Dr. Chmura’s work, see this video from MBCN’s 2012 National Conference.