Marc Lippman, M.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Medicine; Deputy Director, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Description of Research
Dr. Lippman has attempted to bridge the gap between basic tumor biology and clinical application in the field of breast cancer. His work established the critical role of growth factors in human breast cancer, and in an extensive series of studies, has characterized and purified these factors and designed antitumor therapies based on these insights. He has received the Clinical Investigator Prize of the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Rosenthal Award of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society Lectureship awarded by the American Society for Clinical Oncology, the Astwood Prize of the Endocrine Society, and the Brinker International Prize for Basic Research in Breast Cancer. He has authored over 500 publications, and one of the standard texts on breast cancer, and has successfully pursued clinical trials for every stage of breast cancer patients, with most of these studies reflecting his special joining of clinical with basic science.
His current research is focused in two related areas. First, using genomics strategies, his laboratory group has identified a gene, greb1, which appears to be critical in mediating estrogen-mediated growth signaling. Its correlation with ER expression is perfect across a large series of human breast cancer cell lines. It is also strictly estrogen regulated in the normal mammary gland. Silencing of the gene results in abrogation of estrogen induced growth responses with no effect on other estrogen-induced genes not involved in growth. This approach was then used to identify greb1 related genes, which together can be informatically analyzed and used to create a signature, which robustly predicts responses to hormone therapy in patients with breast cancer.
Future directions of the group include the creation of transgenic mice defective in greb1 expression, as well as cell lines with regulatable expression of greb1 to probe the in vivo relevance of greb1 expression for normal mammary gland development and the pathogenesis of breast cancer.
Highlights
- Established the critical role of growth factors in human breast cancer, and in an extensive series of studies, has characterized and purified these factors and designed antitumor therapies
- Identified greb1, a gene which appears to be critical in mediating estrogen mediated growth signaling, shows perfect ER expression correlation across a large series of human breast cancer cell lines, and is strictly estrogen regulated in the normal mammary gland
- Identified greb1 related genes which together can be informatically analyzed and used to create a signature which robustly predicts responses to hormone therapy in patients with breast cancer
Selected Cancer-Related Publications
- Iorns E, Hnatyszyn HJ, Seo P, Clarke J, Ward T, Lippman M. The Role of SATB1 in Breast Cancer Pathogenesis. J Natl Cancer Inst 102:1284-96, 2010 Read more »
- Sikora MJ, Cordero KE, Larios JM, Johnson MD, Lippman ME, Rae JM. The androgen metabolite 5alpha-androstane-3beta, 17beta-diol (3betaAdiol) induces breast cancer growth via estrogen receptor: implications for aromatase inhibitor resistance. Breast Cancer Res Treat 115:289-96, 2009. Read more »
Programs
Collaborating in the Multidisciplinary Research Program(s):