The targeted therapy era of breast cancer

Abstract

C Kent Osborne* speaks to Natalie Harrison, Commissioning Editor: C Kent Osborne is Professor of Medicine and Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine (TX, USA) and is codirector of the annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the international scientific symposium for interaction and exchange among basic scientists and clinicians in breast cancer. Osborne is also director of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center and the Dan L Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine and has more than 25 years of experience in translational and clinical research in breast cancer. Osborne attended University of Missouri Medical School (MO, USA) and did his internship and residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins Hospital (MD, USA). Osborne then went on to become a Fellow in Medical Oncology and Breast Cancer Research at the National Cancer Institute. One of his laboratory’s research objectives is to understand the molecular mechanisms by which breast cancers become resistant to endocrine therapy, and then to develop new treatment strategies to block or overcome this resistance. Research to date has focused on cross-talk with growth factor signaling pathways, phosphorylation of estrogen receptor and interaction with receptor coregulators. Using a combination of inhibitors, the group recently demonstrated eradication of aggressive human breast cancer growing in xenograft models.