Grant: Project Grant

Despite increased awareness, early detection and novel therapies in the past 20 years, breast cancer (BCa) remains the most common cause of female cancer deaths worldwide. Triple negative BCa (TNBC) is a very aggressive type of BCa that spreads rapidly to vital body organs and for which there are no specific treatments. Thus women diagnosed with TNBC are more likely to die than those diagnosed with other types of BCa. Notably, TNBC is most common in young Black women who although less likely to develop BCa, are more likely to die from BCa than Caucasian women. This difference in TNBC prevalence and mortality seems unrelated to socio-economic status and hints at unknown genetic factors or an ancestral genetic predisposition as the cause. Recently our lab found that a protein named Kaiso was highly expressed in TNBC tissues from Black women compared to Caucasian women, and these Black women with high Kaiso expression were less likely to survive. In mouse models of BCa, low Kaiso expression prevented the spread of TNBC cells to the lungs and liver, suggesting that Kaiso plays a role in the spread of BCa. To learn more about Kaiso's role in TNBC, we seek to determine how Kaiso promotes BCa spread and how Kaiso contributes to the racial difference in BCa outcomes. By clarifying Kaiso's role in TNBC features and outcomes, and identifying genetic differences in Black women, we will better understand TNBC and contribute to the development of better tests and therapies for TNBC. Our findings will help decrease the racial differences in BCa outcomes, and help millions of women diagnosed with TNBC worldwide regardless of ethnicity.