Sections

Our department offers educational opportunities for trainees at all experience levels. Through various programs, department faculty oversee the training of medical and surgical oncology fellows, internal medicine residents and pharmD residents. We also facilitate various observership programs for undergraduate and foreign trainees as well as post-doctoral fellowship training.

Houston-area Locations

Section Chief: Sadia Saleem, M.D.

The Breast Medical Oncology department offers care to patients at MD Anderson's Houston Area Locations, including League City, Sugar Land, West Houston and The Woodlands.

Laboratory Sciences and Pharmacology

Section Chief: V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D.

Medical Genetics and Prevention

Section Chief: Banu Arun, M.D.

The High-Risk Breast Screening and Genetics Clinic serves patients with increased risk of breast cancer due to a hereditary cancer syndrome, family history and/or personal risk factors. A multidisciplinary team of physicians and genetic counselors work with patients to assess hereditary cancer risk and discuss genetic testing options with the goal of providing individualized cancer screening and prevention recommendations.

Outcomes & Survivorship

Section Chief: Carlos Barcenas, M.D.

The Breast Cancer Survivorship Program focuses on the medical and psychosocial needs of breast cancer survivors. The Breast Cancer Survivorship Clinic works with other disciplines to provide personalized, evidence-based survivorship care plans to improve health, quality of life and clinical outcomes for our cancer patients and their families. Our research focus is on reducing the negative consequences of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment and improving breast cancer long-term outcomes.

Translational Breast Cancer Research

The section of Translational Breast Cancer Research (TBCR) is leading the effort to coordinate all stages of the therapeutic and biomarker discovery related to breast cancer. Our initiative is to design new, accurate predictive biomarker and specific systemic treatment with less toxicity. We accelerate the delivery of new therapies from the research bench to the patient’s bedside.

Our goal is to reduce the suffering of breast cancer patients by translation of new discoveries to maximize patient benefit through development of personalized and innovative molecular biomarkers and targeted therapies, based on value-driven translational/clinical research and through nurturing a new generation of oncology investigators.

We strive is to be the world's premier breast cancer translational research section through multidisciplinary and collaborative research.

Close collaboration with our breast medical oncologist and different disciplines such as medicinal chemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, bioinformatics will provide our investigators to be both productive in clinical and translational research. Our core research effort is also supported by conducting investigator initiated clinical trials for both therapeutic, biobanking, and biomarker development in the clinical area.

The section is divided into individual laboratory research group by faculty listed below and our preclinical working group, “Enhanced Drug-Development Guide & Evaluation (EDGE) Preclinical Solutions.” The EDGE Preclinical solutions aim to provide rapid drug development platforms by enhancing the value of novel therapeutic approach and guiding investigator-initiated clinical trials or standard of care. The group is dedicated to discovering and developing targeted therapies and molecular biomarkers for outstanding patient care based on value-driven translational/clinical research through extensive collaboration with industry and academia. For interest for collaboration, please contact Jangsoon (Jason) Lee.

Section faculty

Carlos H. Barcenas, M.D., M.Sc.
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Barcenas' focus is to decrease breast cancer mortality by validating molecular biomarkers and targeted therapies by conducting clinical trials in breast cancer patients who develop a molecular relapse.

V. Lokesh Battula, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Primary appointment: Leukemia dept.
Joint appointment: Breast Medical Oncology dept.

Research Interests: Battula’s research is focused on targeting cancer stem cells (CSCs), a rare population of cells present in the primary tumor that are drug resistant and cause tumor relapse.

Chandra Bartholomeusz, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Research Interests: The Bartholomeusz Laboratory is dedicated to conducting research to uncover the mechanisms of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumorigenesis and metastasis, identify novel TNBC therapeutic targets and ultimately improve the survival of patients with TNBC. Specific targets of interest which are being further investigated include ERK, PEA-15, Mcl-1 and MELK.

Bisrat G. Debeb, DVM, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: The major goal of the Debeb lab is to identify and target the molecular determinants of brain metastasis, and to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the unique pathobiology of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC), a very aggressive variant of breast cancer.