Vanderbilt researcher unlocks Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), Nashville company plans to commercialize

Billboards, athletic events, schools, daycares, healthcare facilities, your office – right now the world is littered with pink accents meant to remind us of the prevalence of breast cancer. Now in its 29th year, Breast Cancer Awareness Month is a time when survivors share their stories, organizations urge women to get screened, and companies – big and small – roll up their sleeves to support research and educational efforts around the disease that has become the second leading cause of death among women.

At Vanderbilt, much research has been focused on the various forms of breast cancer, specifically genetic mutations that drive the disease and targeted therapies that can stop the mutations. One particular team of researchers, led by Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., set out to investigate a particular type of breast cancer known as Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). When classified as “TNBC”, the cancer is defined by what it isn’t, falling into a “bucket of last resort”. It is used to categorize tumors that lack the three most common receptors known to fuel breast cancer: estrogen receptors, progesterone receptors, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Without having the driver identified, treatment options are limited and prognosis is poor. 

Long considered a “step child” of breast cancer, TNBC is most common in African-American women, followed by Hispanics, Asian-Americans and lastly Caucasians. The lack of information about TNBC is not because researchers aren’t eager to learn more, but more so because it has been such a difficult code to crack.

Through extensive research, Pietenpol and her team (pictured right) discovered that there are at least six subsets of TNBC, each with their own genetic drivers. This discovery has revolutionized the way we think about TNBC. It means that scientists can explore therapies that target these specific drivers, and it opens the door for targeted therapies.   

In 2013, Insight Genetics, a Nashville-based company specializing in molecular diagnostics, became interested in collaborating with Pietenpol to dig deeper into the TNBC subsets and create a viable diagnostic assay that can be used worldwide.

In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, CTTC visited Insight Genetics’ Nashville lab for a behind-the-scenes tour and in-depth interviews with the company’s leaders about progress they have made regarding the TNBC project. What we found was a team of men and women committed to understanding cancer at the molecular level -- a group keenly focused on developing better diagnostic tools that will lead to more effective cancer therapies.

“Seventy-five percent of cancer therapies are ineffective,” said CEO Eric Dahlhauser, CPA. “Diagnostics really are the lynch pin for precision medicine.”

The team at Insight Genetics brings a highly varied background – MBAs, Ph.D.s., and M.D.s. Chief Scientific Officer Steve Morris, M.D., spent nearly three decades at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In fact, an oncogene discovered by his lab at St. Jude is the basis of Insight Genetics’s ALK Screen, which is being used in lung cancer diagnostics throughout the U.S. and in Europe.

“I’ve been doing cancer care for about 30 years now,” said Morris. “When I started, it was one size fits all. If you had lung cancer, this (chemotherapy) is what you got. If you had breast cancer, [that] is what you got.  Thankfully, things have changed dramatically over the last three decades, and in large part, this comes down to diagnostics because we now know the genetic drivers of the cancers. If you can treat a cancer with a therapeutic that has been shown to be effective against that genetic type of cancer, the responses are dramatic.” 

And dramatic responses are exactly what Insight Genetics hopes to accomplish. Through better diagnostics, they hope to pave way for developing new, targeted therapeutics, while offering cancer patients a better quality of care.

“My mother did die of breast cancer,” said Chief Technology Officer Rob Seitz. “So this disease is personal, and we have a chance to save a lot of other mothers.”