Hematology & Medical Oncology
Featured Research Project
“Plasma Exosomes from Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes Drive Breast Cancer Aggression in Patient-derived Organoids”
Gerald V. Denis, PhD
Dr. Gerald V. Denis has been developing novel organoid models of the breast tumor microenvironment in patients who also have obesity-driven diabetes. Patients with metabolic complications are prevalent and can represent as much as two thirds of our cancer patients at Boston Medical Center. The tumor microenvironment of these patients is highly dangerous and quite different from patients with the same stages and types of breast cancer but who are metabolically normal. More metastasis and tumor progression as well as resistance to chemotherapy is likely here because the fat tissue of the breast is inflamed and secreting more dangerous factors that alter tumor properties. The urgency here is that these considerations do not yet inform the standard of care in America or anywhere else in the world.