New Publication by Pharmacy Alumna, Fellow and Faculty Member

Congratulations to recent Pharmacy alumna Hayley Heers ('18), Academic and Ambulatory Care Fellow Jennifer Stanislaw ('18), Pharmacy faculty member John Harrelson, and Mike Lee of the University of Texas at Austin. The study Valproic acid as an adjunctive therapeutic agent for the treatment of breast cancer was published in the European Journal of Pharmacology.

From the abstract:

Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer-related death among women. A significant challenge in treating breast cancer is the limited array of therapeutic options and the rapid development of resistance to existing agents. Indeed, breast cancer patients, particularly those with hormone-receptor (HR)-positive breast cancer, initially respond to systemic treatment with cytotoxic, hormonal, and immunotherapeutic agents but frequently progress to a more advanced disease that is refractory to therapy. Thus, new agents are needed to improve the effectiveness of current agents, decrease the emergence of resistance, and increase disease-free survival. To this end, numerous agents have been investigated for use in combination with existing therapies. Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are a class of potent epigenetic modulators that have been investigated recently for their potential use in the treatment of breast cancer.