Pre-clinical strategy to evaluate the use of compounds for the treatment of breast cancer.

In 2011 there were an estimated 23,400 new cases of breast cancer amongst Canadians and approximately 5,100 deaths due to this disease. Statistics however do not provide answers as to how and why breast cancer happens. One factor that is rate limiting to successful clinical outcomes is the development of treatments that target the molecular events that give rise to cancer in the first place. To identify the genes and proteins involved in the development of cancer, we developed a mouse model of human breast cancer. Using this model, we propose to determine how an enzyme called LKB1 is involved in breast cancer, since a major job of LKB1 is to prevent tumours from developing, therefore when LKB1 is mutated, cancers will result. In addition, we propose to test several novel drugs in combination in our model, to determine their ability to inhibit tumour growth.Our research will provide medical scientists with more pieces to the breast cancer puzzle allowing for a better understanding as to why and how breast cancer develops. With molecular mechanisms in hand, the development of personalized treatments will result and more importantly, cures for the different forms of breast cancer will be foreseeable in the near future. To evaluate combinatorial drug treatment on inhibiting tumour growth in vivo.We propose a novel combination of small molecules that target aberrant tumour suppressor and oncogene activities. Novel therapeutics will be tested in our mouse model of breast cancer in conjunction with MRI to visualize the effect of novel drugs on mammary gland tumourigenesis.