Research in Action: Dr. Vered Stearns

Vered Stearns, M.D., was interested in cancer research throughout most of her studies, but her initial interest in breast cancer started during her fellowship.

“I was working with some incredible physician scientists, and I was also seeing patients in our clinics, many were young women with breast cancer,” Dr. Stearns said. “Their diseases were more complex, requiring multidisciplinary treatments, and we had to think about their long-term outcome.”

“We wanted them to survive cancer, but we also wanted them to live well beyond their cancer.”

These experiences led Dr. Stearns to devote her research to seeking new treatment options for young women who were entering new stages in their lives with careers, children, etc. She wanted her patients to thrive after cancer treatment.

In 2017, while at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Stearns partnered with her colleague Roisin Connolly, M.D., to receive a V Foundation grant funded by the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund. The grant laid the biological foundation and kick-started a phase one clinical trial to study a new regimen of treatment, combining Entinostat (an HDAC/enzyme inhibitor) and immune-checkpoint blockages.

The study was done in two parts. First, it was open to patients with all types of tumors. The results from this portion were somewhat surprising and positive. Previously, it was thought that this course of treatment was not effective to non-traditional tumors, but the results were positive, and the toxicity of treatment was low for the patients.

The second part of the study specifically featured women with HER2-negative breast cancer, but half of the patients had hormone receptor positive tumors and half had hormone receptive negative tumors. Using the safest course of treatment from the first part of the clinical trial, Dr. Stearns and her team introduced the medications and the results were extremely encouraging.

“I can tell you that some of the patients I’ve seen myself had quite incredible benefits, including no evidence of disease for a prolonged period of time,” Dr. Stearns said. “It’s not something that we commonly see with more standard medications. We have done many studies, looking at biologic correlates in the biopsies we obtained from the women, and we are thankful for them and appreciative of them.”

“Like in sports, we work as teams,” Dr. Stearns said. “We bring in different expertise and experiences. Dr. Connelly was a colleague of mine. We worked together for several years. First, as a trainee when she had interest in drug development, especially in immunotherapy related medications in breast cancer, which at the time was not a common research interest. We have worked together taking results from previous studies and collaborating with our lab-based scientists to develop this recent study.”

The V Foundation continues to fuel the creativity and bold ideas of all-star researchers like Dr. Stearns and Dr. Connelly. Their dedication to seeking new options for patients with aggressive breast cancers is changing the game.

Dr. Stearns’ and Dr. Connolly’s study would not have been possible without the collaboration of researchers and clinicians around the world, in addition to courageous patients willing to participate. The tremendous commitment of patients and donors coming alongside these researchers made a real impact.

“For us to improve on current outcomes of breast cancer, to reduce recurrences and death, or to reduce the number of breast cancer [cases] that occur, we must work in partnerships and teams, and with our stakeholders. Our first and most important stakeholders are the patients. They are there fighting with us to improve their own outcomes, but also for the next generation.

“Fundraising – and this is something that I think that the V Foundation appreciated from the very start – may not help ourselves necessarily, but it’s going to help the next generation. I’m very grateful for our patients and their loved ones who work with us to raise additional funds to make sure that we can perform the necessary cancer research to change outcomes.”