WILL KEYNOTE S. FL. GILDA’S CLUB "DAY OF RESEARCH AND HOPE"
(Fort Lauderdale, FL) – Dr. Patricia Berg, Ph.D., of George Washington University Medical Center, who last year led a multi-university team which discovered a new gene, BP1, activated in 80% of breast cancer patients, will keynote a "Day of Research and Hope" at Gilda’s Club South Florida at 11AM on Saturday, March 13, 119 Rose Drive, Fort Lauderdale. The event is open to the public and media. Dr. Berg will be available to the press before her 11AM talk and will hold a news conference immediately following, at approximately 11:45 AM.
Dr. Berg will discuss her discovery and progress toward new drugs and diagnostic tools in cancer, including a blood test for early detection of the new gene and drugs that may suppress it or be helpful in breast cancer.
40,000 women die of breast cancer annually, and 212,000 women – one in every eight women over a lifetime -- and 1,500 men contract the disease per year.
The Berg team’s discovery was reported in the scientific peer-review journal, Breast Cancer Research, and in mainstream media including CNN, AP, Reuters, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Prevention Magazine, and others. Dr. Berg calls the research and discovery of the gene "an early significant finding and a target for therapy." She adds, "Development of pending tests for early diagnosis and the discovery of drugs to suppress the gene would be major developments to assist women with this deadly disease."
Dr. Berg had earlier discovered and published that BP1 is involved in leukemia, and she is testing its potential involvement in other cancers.
Dr. Berg, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, DC, directs the breast cancer research laboratory at GWUMC and is Chair of the GWUMC Research Committee. She received her A.B. undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago and her Ph.D. at Illinois Institute of Technology. Among her work prior to GWUMC, she served at NIH as senior fellow for 11 years.
Other experts speaking at the Gilda’s Club "Day of Research and Hope" include
Dr. Nicholas Tranakas, Surgical Oncology Director, cancer services for the North Broward Hospital District; Dr. Atif Hussein, Medical Oncology Director of Clinical Research, Memorial Regional Hospital, Comprehensive Cancer Center; Dr. Herbert Brizel, radiation oncologist, former Chairman of the cancer committee, Memorial Healthcare System; Alex Aller, Ph.D., executive director of the Rumbaugh-Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research; and Dr. Alan Pierce, anatomic and clinical pathologist, Chief of Pathology, Westside Regional Medical Center and Wellington Regional Medical Center.
Gilda’s Club is a free not-for-profit, non-residential, social and emotional cancer support community, named after Saturday Night Live’s Gilda Radner, who died of cancer.
(Source: Robert Weiner Associates and Gilda’s Club South Florida).
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