ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — Conquer Cancer®, the ASCO Foundation, in collaboration with Twisted Pink, has awarded the Twisted Pink Metastatic Breast Cancer Impact Award to Ashley Schreier, DO, MS, for her work studying the impact of immunotherapies on metastatic triple negative breast cancer—the most advanced stage of the disease.  

This two-year $200,000 grant is designed to support hypothesis-driven research projects in either basic, translational or clinical metastatic breast cancer research (MBC), with emphasis on studies with the greatest potential impact to advance MBC treatments and reduce the mortality of MBC patients. The award recognizes Dr. Schreier’s clinical study, “Dual checkpoint blockade with Botensilimab and Balstilimab in metastatic triple negative breast cancer: a pilot study investigating novel immunotherapeutic strategies.”

MBC (also called stage IV or advanced breast cancer) is breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes to other parts of the body, most often the bones, lungs, liver or brain. It is estimated that 168,000 people in the US are living with MBC. People diagnosed with MBC will remain in treatment for the remainder of their lives.  

Since 2015, Twisted Pink has been funding research to advance science and provide new treatment options for people living with MBC. “While there is no cure for metastatic breast cancer, treatment may control it for a number of years,” said Caroline Johnson, Founder and Executive Director of Twisted Pink. “There is a need for innovative research and investigators to accelerate understanding and advancements in clinical applications for people living with metastatic breast cancer.”

As an assistant professor of medicine in hematology and medical oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and an assistant attending physician at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Schreier treats patients with all forms of breast cancer, with a special interest in caring for those with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which has been the emphasis of her research. Dr. Schreier works in close collaboration with Dr. Roberta Zappasodi's tumor immunology laboratory at Weill Cornell, and the two have developed this trial concept as a part of their efforts to develop novel immunotherapy strategies in TNBC.

Metastatic TNBC (mTNBC) is aggressive and challenging to treat; has fewer treatment options; and tends to have a worse prognosis when compared to other breast cancer subtypes. This grant will support a phase II clinical trial using a combination checkpoint inhibitor regimen (botensilimab and balstilimab) with a new marker called CTLA-4 for patients with mTNBC.  

“The proposed project will strive to meet an unmet clinical need with a goal of establishing safety and immune activity of this regimen and ultimately improving survival outcomes in mTNBC, the most aggressive type of breast cancer,” Dr. Schreier said. “My experiences studying chemotherapy toxicities in both laboratory and clinical research settings have fueled my current area of interest in novel combination strategies, targeted approaches, and personalized medicine in oncology.”  

This is a grant from Twisted Pink, with Conquer Cancer serving as the lead organization in implementing and administering the grant through EveryGrant®.

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