PI(3)King the Right Target
The landscape of medication to treat ER+, HER2 negative or low is changing rapidly as patients experience progression on CDK4/6 inhibitors and look for next steps. Now that biomarker testing is more readily available (both tissue and liquid), there are more options particularly in the PI3 kinase pathway. In this episode we will discuss biomarker testing, the PI3 kinase pathway, and an exciting new patient initiative, the PIK3CA Pathbreakers.
Meet the Guests of the Episode
Marlena Murphy
Marlena Marlena Murphy was diagnosed with stage III triple-negative breast cancer in 2018. She maintained a positive attitude throughout treatment and found herself encouraging friends upon hearing her news. Marlena found her way to the advocacy world because of her desire to help others dealing with cancer. She began serving as a Patient Advocate in 2019 with My Style Matters while undergoing treatment. She also serves as a Patient & Family Advisor for Emory Winship Cancer Institute; works as a Program Manager for GRASP - Guiding Researchers and Advocates to Scientific Partnerships; and works as the Community Advocate for TurningPoint Breast Cancer Rehabilitation. As a result of her diagnosis and desire to help people, Marlena went back to school to pursue a Master's degree. In 2022, her last year of graduate school, she was diagnosed with Metastatic TNBC. In May 2023, she received a Master's in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with certificates in Marriage & Family Therapy and Sex Therapy. She is also a 2023 Project Lead graduate. Currently, Marlena provides therapy services to individuals experiencing homelessness. Soon, she will be providing counseling services for breast cancer patients and survivors at TurningPoint through a grant-funded initiative in downtown Atlanta.
Twitter: @MarlenaDM
Melanie Sisk
Melanie was a wife, mom of two young boys and working full-time as a Registered Nurse when she was diagnosed with Stage 1A Breast Cancer at the age of forty-three. She completed her recommended surgery and radiation and was on endocrine therapy. Melanie thought she had put cancer behind her because she did everything right. However, she was diagnosed with Metastatic Breast cancer at the age of forty-seven. Much to her surprise, she was in the twenty to thirty percent of early-stage breast cancer patients that will be diagnosed with metastatic disease. Melanie was never educated on this high reoccurrence percentage. Due to her Metastatic treatment protocol and disease, she retired from her nursing career.
Melanie has dived into advocacy work with an urgency to do what she can, while she can. She helped to start and moderate a local support group in her area of North Carolina called “Piedmont Triad METsters.” She is a trained volunteer with Cancer Services, a Peer to Peer Support Group Leader and Light Up MBC State Ambassador METAvivor. a Living Beyond Breast Cancer 2023 Hear My Voice MBC leadership alumna, mentor with Project Life. a part of the MBC Leadership Committee for Surviving Breast Cancer, and an individual member of the MBCAlliance. She is also a part of the new initiative, PIK3CA Pathbreakers. She is hoping to learn from others and help further the cause and mission of the Metastatic Breast Cancer community.
Neil Vasan, MD, PhD
Dr. Vasan is a breast oncologist, physician scientist, and Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology & Oncology at Columbia University, where he also serves as the Principal Investigator at the Vasan Laboratory of Functional Cancer Genomics at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center. He is a Member of the Breast Cancer Program at Columbia University Medical Center, where he treats breast cancer patients with standard-of-care therapies and on clinical trials. His laboratory uses functional genomics to understand how proteins regulate breast cancer cell signaling, growth, and therapeutic response.
Neil received his AB/AM from Harvard University and his MD/PhD from Yale University School of Medicine, and he completed clinical training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and in medical oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. As a postdoctoral fellow, he identified double PIK3CA mutations as an oncogenic alteration, which has gone from bench to bedside as a cancer genomic biomarker.
His research awards include the 2023 NIH Director's New Innovator Award (DP2), NIH/NCI Mentored Clinical Scientist Development Award K08, Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst Research grant, American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) NextGen Star, and American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award. Neil is an active clinical oncologist treating patients with breast cancer, and is the Scientific Advisor for PIK3CA Pathbreakers, a breast cancer patient advocacy group. He serves on the planning committee of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and as a Standing Member of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) for the FDA.
Twitter: @NeilVasan
