The UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center just received its largest donation ever. A $25 million dollar gift from an anonymous donor is establishing the UNC Lineberger Center for Triple Negative Breast Cancer.

Triple negative breast cancer is defined by what it doesn’t have: estrogen, progesterone and HER2 receptors. For other forms of breast cancer, doctors can use targeted therapies to treat the tumor by focusing on one of the receptors. The triple negative form doesn’t have those receptors, so doctors have to rely on chemotherapy and immunotherapy to cure or control the cancer.

Dr. Lisa Carey is a medical oncologist who specializes in treating breast cancer patients and will serve as director of the UNC Lineberger Center for Triple Negative Breast Cancer. Carey said the gift came from a former UNC Lineberger patient and her husband who wanted to improve the effectiveness of treatment for triple negative breast cancer.

“This is incredible tangible evidence of the way that our patients are our partners,” said Carey, “This particular couple has done it through an incredible gift that is spectacular. Other patients do it by participating in clinical trials. We can’t do that without them.”

Triple negative breast cancer accounts for 10-20 percent of all breast cancer cases. Black, Latina and young women, however, are disproportionately more likely to be affected by triple negative breast cancer. Carey said the reasons why are not well understood.

“They’re likely to be a combination of genetic features and environmental features,” Carey said. “This is not just in North Carolina, but all over. [This] is super important because we don’t really understand why there’s that racial disparity.”

Additionally, Carey said the center will focus on developing new treatments for triple negative breast cancer. Current treatments are dependent on chemotherapy and immunotherapy. In order to make a breakthrough, she said researchers will need to work outside of traditional treatments.

“We have at UNC a remarkable group of clinicians and scientists who work in developing genetic gene and cellular therapies,” Carey said. “Those are treatments that are really at the moment only limited to things like leukemia and lymphoma but getting it into breast cancer would be a huge advance.”

Carey said the research from the new triple negative breast cancer center can be used to aid research within other deadly cancers.

The $25 million gift will also support other research within UNC Lineberger. This includes improving treatments for metastatic disease, improving pediatric care and eliminating racial disparities in cancer treatment outcomes.

“This will be a gift that keeps on giving,” Carey said. “This is the donor’s intent. They want a ripple effect.”

 

Photo via UNC

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