Nancy Davidson is the senior vice president and director of the Clinical Research Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and has been studying the molecular mechanisms that drive breast cancer for the past three decades. In recent years, her lab has investigated the role of epigenetic changes that occur during the disease, and whether they can be targeted with drugs.
Altering epigenetic changes could prove helpful, particularly for a minority of breast cancer patients, as certain epigenetic modifications may underlie their cancers’ resistance to hormone therapy, for instance, by altering the cells’ production of estrogen and progesterone receptors. Davidson’s and others’ preclinical research has shown that some of these changes are reversible using epigenetic modifiers. Several clinical trials have been launched to assess their clinical benefit, such as by employing histone deacetylase inhibitors in early-stage breast cancer, or using combinations of epigenetic modifiers to treat advanced breast cancer.
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