At the root of breast cancer

UNC’s participation in October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month ranges from one end of campus to the other — and for some, it’s personal.

Emily Cude, president of UNC’s chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha, said she knows firsthand the consequences of breast cancer.

She said her grandmother is a breast cancer survivor who visits UNC every spring to participate in the sorority’s Franklin 5K.

“For me as a woman, I think this is a cause that is near and dear to all of our hearts,” Cude said.

Cude said the sorority will be having a Think Pink month this year instead of just a week so it can raise more money and awareness.

She said the women are distributing instructions of proper breast self-examination methods and doling out pink ribbons to students.

And as campus groups raise awareness, UNC researchers are working to combat the disease that will kill approximately 40,000 women in the United States this year.

At UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, professor of genetics Charles Perou is researching the genetic causes of the disease.

Perou runs a lab of 18 people that researches gene expression profiling, which involves looking at what genes are expressed in breast cancer tumors.

“It’s like trying to find the roots of a tree,” he said.

Perou said his research on genetics has led to a laboratory test that can determine which subtype of breast cancer a patient has. The test will also provide a measure of that patient’s overall prognosis.

“If you want to kill the tree, you can chop it down, but it might grow back. If we can kill the roots, the whole thing is going to die,” he said about the relationship between genes and breast cancer.

Perou said he and other groups are using this information in clinical trials to determine the best type of drug treatment for patients.

He said the test could determine that a patient has a less aggressive type of breast cancer and therefore might need less aggressive cancer treatment.

“In this way, we’re now tailoring the therapeutics to the biology of each patients’ tumor,” Perou said.

The PAM50 test — which determines the subtype of breast cancer and overall prognosis — recently received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and is already available in Europe.

Dr. Shelley Earp

, director of Lineberger Center, also works in the lab on clinical tests and within public health.

“We still have a long way to go because we’re losing mothers, daughters, wives and sisters, and the people that get breast cancer are the real strengths of families,” he said.

UNC’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. is another organization that is working to spread awareness.

Simone Boney, service coordinator of the sorority, said the members have been going to low-income areas to tell people about mammograms.

“Almost everyone knows someone who is affected by or has breast cancer,” Boney said. “I kind of think it’s personal for everyone.”

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