Mary Kay grants US$100,000 to support triple negative breast cancer research

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 -- The Mary Kay Foundation(SM) recently donated US$100,000 to the Baylor Scott & White Dallas Foundation to help fund the triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) research. (US$1 = RM4.18)

The research is conducted by Dr Joyce O’Shaughnessy, breast oncologist with TEXAS Oncology and the Celebrating Women Chair in breast cancer research at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

TNBC is a high-risk breast cancer with few effective options for patients. It usually affects younger women, African-American women and women with a BRCA1 genetic mutation.

Mary Kay Inc chief scientific officer, Dr Lucy Gildea said: “At The Mary Kay Foundation, our mission is to eradicate cancers that affect women around the world, and each year, we invest millions in groundbreaking research and support for organisations like Baylor Scott & White.

“We are honoured to help fund Dr O’Shaughnessy’s potentially lifesaving research, and we look forward to following along and learning how these results might impact the prognosis of metastatic TNBC patients in the future.”

According to Dr O’Shaughnessy, the goal of this work is to understand more about the pathways that might allow patients to achieve highly durable complete responses to their treatment and determine the molecular characteristics of TNBCs that predict the benefit from different treatment strategies.

Over two decades, the foundation has awarded more than US$80 million to women’s shelters and domestic violence service providers, as well as cancer research programmes and related causes throughout the United States.

-- BERNAMA