ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation, is pleased to award Ana Garrido-Castro, MD, with the 2023 Conquer Cancer – Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation Advanced Clinical Research Award (ACRA), for her research project “Unraveling mechanisms of resistance to antibody drug conjugates in triple-negative breast cancer.”

The development of resistance to standard therapies represents a significant challenge in the treatment of metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (mTNBC). Novel antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) deliver chemotherapy in a targeted manner to tumors by binding to a specific target on cancer cells. With the approval of both TROP2-targeted and HER2-targeted ADCs for patients with mTNBC, it is unclear how to optimally sequence these therapies. To improve patient selection for ADCs, it is critical to identify factors that predict which patients are more likely to benefit from these treatments. This study aims to investigate whether switching the target from TROP2 to HER2 or vice versa may allow patients to continue benefiting from ADC therapy.

Dr. Garrido-Castro is a medical oncologist specialized in breast cancer at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on studying new targeted and immunotherapy-based treatment approaches. Ultimately, her work aims to better understand mechanisms of therapeutic response and resistance so that more effective and personalized treatment strategies can be developed for patients with breast cancer. Dr. Garrido-Castro is also the recipient of a 2017 Gianni Bonadonna Breast Cancer Research Fellowship and a 2018 Conquer Cancer Young Investigator Award.

The ACRA in Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) Research is a three-year, $450,000 grant that supports mid-career physician scientists who wish to conduct original and currently unfunded research that supports the discovery of new targeted treatments for patients with TNBC.

The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation was founded in 2006 in honor of Nancy Block-Zenna, a young woman who was diagnosed at age 35 with triple negative breast cancer. She passed away just a few years later. In response to Nancy’s diagnosis, her close friends launched the TNBC Foundation to raise awareness and support research in the triple negative breast cancer space. TNBC Foundation’s mission is to be a credible source for TNBC information, a catalyst for science and patient advocacy, and a caring community with meaningful services for patients and their families.