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About Our Mission...
We are dedicated to providing funds for the Answer to Cancer SRQ research project at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa where Dr. Ana Gomes and her team are studying breast cancer metastasis and aging.
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Our Impactful Research Project
Updates From Dr. Ana
A message from Dr Ana Gomes.....
“Thank you for your generous help in supporting our mission to eradicate breast cancer metastasis. Your donations have enabled us to learn more about the biology of breast cancer cells that are left after therapy and that cause breast cancer relapse in a deathly metastatic form many years after remission.
I am pleased to share that we have made significant strides towards targeting these residual cells and are in the process of testing its therapeutical efficacy against breast cancer relapse in a pre-clinical setting. Our preliminary results are very encouraging and we believe these results will spearhead a transformational therapeutic approach that prevents breast relapse.
Please consider continuing to support breast cancer research in the future, together we can move towards a world where breast cancer can be cured.”
Warm regards,
Ana
Aging & Breast Cancer Metastasis
Aging is the most robust risk factor for cancer development, with more than 60% of cancer incidence occurring in those aged 65 and above. Aging not only predicts cancer incidence, but also plays a central role in prognosis. Older patients have worse outcomes with unfavorable progression-free and overall survival rates. This relationship has become even more concerning considering the dramatic increase in the average life expectancy over the last decades. Cancer is currently one of the leading causes of death in the western world, yet the cancer-associated morbidity and mortality rates are predicted to increase as the population continues to age. Despite this, how the aging and tumorigenic processes are intertwined is still not well defined and a matter of debate.
Cancer As We Age
Dr. Gomes has a new idea about how cancer grows as we age. As people get older, something called methylmalonic acid (MMA) accumulates in the blood. This extra MMA helps cancer cells move, invade other tissues, survive, and spread in the body. This means that changes in the whole body with aging can make it easier for cancer to become worse. The Gomes lab is working to learn more about how aging affects the whole body to help cancer grow, and to use this knowledge for better cancer research.
A Little Bit About Moffitt
The world renowned Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, located in Tampa, FL is home to the Gomes Lab that is supported by Answer to Cancer SRQ and it's founders, Eileen Cantarella and Ronni Loundy.
Moffitt is an NCI designated cancer center that takes a muli-disciplinary approach to cancer. They are able to do this by focusing on cutting-edge discoveries that can be rapidly translated into improved preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic advances..