TOUCHEDBYTEAL™ Quarterly Newsletter / Volume 2 / Summer 2024
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Research at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper Barbara T. Foundation Co-Founder/Member Jay Ferraro went on-site to meet Dr. Chu and the research team at the MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, including Dr. Nadir Ahmad and Dr. Helen Toma.
Dr. Toma took a few minutes to meet me as she is amid active research,” said Jay. “She was excited to see me as she was on Dr. David Warshal’s team when Barbara was going through treatments and remembered Barbara and me. She was amazed to find out that our foundation was funding the research she was doing. She was also moved to be a part of Barbara’s medical team, and she felt proud to still be a part of Barbara’s fight to end Ovarian Cancer.
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On the visit, Dr. Chu and Dr. Ahmad detailed the importance of the current research focus and discussed its progress. In short, research is targeted toward the NRF2 and KEAP1 genes, and how to stop them from allowing a cancer cell to become resistant to chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments. MD Anderson has found that during treatment, cancer cells generate higher levels of the NFR2 and KEAP1 genes that produce a substance that surrounds the chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy that is attacking the cell, killing and thereby rendering it useless – ineffective. The research the Barbara T. Foundation is funding targets the NRF2 and KEAP1 genes to kill both, allowing opportunity for the chemo/immunotherapies to kill the cancer cells.
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