Can you help? – A study towards understanding how drug resistance develops in breast cancers

Dr Sankari Nagarajan is a lecturer in Chromatin Biology, and Principal Investigator at The Manchester Breast centre, The Manchester Cancer Research centre and The CRUK Manchester Centre.

A much-admired breast cancer scientist: she is constantly striving towards a future where breast cancer can both be predicted and prevented.

As a charity, we have explained many times previously, that the government unfortunately directs just 8.6% of its spending to prevention and early detection of all diseases. And so, as is the norm in her field, Dr Nagarajan must apply for grants, and so funding, from charities, such as Prevent Breast Cancer, to carry out her life-saving research.

Before she applies for her next grant, she would appreciate discussing her research ideas with people who currently have breast cancer or who have had breast cancer in the past. By pitching her research ideas (before putting them to grant applications) to those affected by breast cancer this means she can make any necessary changes and make her application as strong as possible. She is also interested in sharing her research findings up to now.

Requirements to take part:

• To have breast cancer or have had it in the past, and if possible (but not a definite requirement), experience with Tamoxifen resistance.
• There is no age restriction.
• Availability over Zoom or in person before August 15th. One meeting is required and should you want to meet face to face, this can take place within Manchester, including The Nightingale Centre. Unfortunately, expenses can’t be covered for travel. The initial meeting should take around 45 minutes of your time.
• Dr Nagarajan would also welcome you for another meeting, should you want to, once she has the results of her final project.

If this sounds like you and you’d like to be considered, please have a read about her future project. Details of how to get in touch with Dr Nagarajan can be found below.

Developing specific diagnostic markers and treatment options for drug-resistant breast cancers

Breast cancers develop due to hormones like estrogen (oestrogen), which function by stimulating their protein receptors. Estrogen Receptors (ER) play a major role in the development of breast cancers. Therapies targeting ER receptors, to stop them from being activated and to stop the cancer from growing further, have been developed i.e., Tamoxifen. These therapies have significantly increased patient survival rates for people with breast cancers (78%). However, it is common for these treatments to stop working and for cancers to return, resulting in the cancer spreading around the body (metastasis). Understanding the mechanisms behind drug resistance and metastasis is crucial to improve treatment outcome.

We work with ER-positive breast cancer cells, to study how they resist receptor-targeting treatments that are currently used clinically such as Tamoxifen, Fulvestrant, etc. I identified that these cells don’t respond to these treatments when proteins, including one called ARID1A, which are present naturally in cells, have been deactivated i.e., when the ARID1A protein is mutated.

The proposed project aims to understand how cells stop responding to Tamoxifen in the presence of frequently represented mutations in ARID1A.

If you can offer some time to support this grant application, please contact Dr Nagarajan directly by email. She is also available by telephone – 0161 275 7832.

Please be advised that she can not offer any medical advice and can only answer questions in relation to her research and regarding participation in the study.

Thank you to Dr Nagarajan  for taking the time to discuss her fascinating research with us and we wish her well with her grant applications.

Find out more about Prevent Breast Cancer’s research.