Journal of Cancer Research and Immuno-Oncology
Open Access
ISSN: 2684-1266
ISSN: 2684-1266
Debomita Sengupta
Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute, India
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Cancer Res Immunooncol
Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women with the age and sex-standardized incidence rate of ~47.8% as per GLOBOCAN 2020. Additionally, there is about 0.5% increase in the incidence rate per year globally despite decrease in death rates, which is associated with improved awareness and screening resulting in early detection as per American Cancer Society. About 30% of patients with apparent clinical remission present with disease recurrence in course of time as observed up to 24 years’ follow-up studies. In fact, often the actual statistics of patients showing clinical remission remains only an estimate since a majority presents for the initial detection at a considerably late age with a median age of diagnosis about 62 years while the global life expectancy itself is about 73 years. Therefore, considering most of the time the minor initial symptoms being ignored by the patients, a cost-effective and simple detection system seems extremely necessary, which can be incorporated into yearly check-up. Our study was initially based on understanding the role of stemless factors in regulation of AURKA, the highly overexpressed serine-threonine kinase in 94% of breast cancer cases. However, recently a phase III clinical trial of Aliserib as a single agent, reported no better prognosis in a 960-day timeframe compared to the comparator arm consisting of Gemcitabine/Pralatrexate/Romidepsin in relapsed or refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma proving that AURKA expression may be dispensable during dissemination of the breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs). Factually, despite AURKA was found to be induced in Oct4/Sox2-high cells in breast cancer tissues, the same cells were found to restrain AURKA expression designating entry into an apparently quiescent AURKA-free G0 phase in circulation. These cells were found to be expressing the EMT markers, indicating the progenitors to be directed towards acquisition of mesenchymal phenotype thereby suggesting appropriate intervention(s).
Debomita Sengupta has been working on breast cancer signalling pathways, diagnostics and treatment aspects for 15 years. Apart from her contributions in the reputed international journals in form of articles, reviews and book chapters, she has been a recipient of multiple prestigious research fellowships from the University Grants Commission, Department of Science & Technology and the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Govt. of India. Her PhD work was selected for presentation in the late-breaking category of the Annual Meeting of AACR; her postdoctoral work was selected for presentation in ESMO and honorary flash talk in Society of Biological Chemists, Kolkata. In addition to her work at CNCI, she is currently a member reviewer of the international journals like the Cellular Oncology (Impact Factor: 7.051), BMC Bioinformatics (Impact Factor: 3.328), Journal of Ovarian Research (Impact Factor: 5.506), Current Pharmacology Reports (Impact Factor: 0.597) and American Journal of Translational Medicine.