Congratulations to Philip Spanheimer, MD, for receiving the very competitive and prestigious National Cancer Institute’s K08 career development grant which will support 5 years of funding for his research “Repurposing RET Inhibitors for Endocrine Resistant Breast Cancer”.
“We have the unique opportunity to bridge laboratory studies and patient care” said Spanheimer as his study explores the resistance to endocrine therapy as a leading cause of treatment failure and death in women with breast cancer. The team has identified an important role for the RET receptor in this process and will investigate RET as a therapeutic target in breast cancer with mechanistic studies to inform biomarkers for future clinical trials of RET inhibitors in patients in need of better therapy.
Dr. Spanheimer is an Assistant Professor of Surgical Oncology at the UNC Department of Surgery and full member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. His clinical research focuses on surgical management of cancer and patient outcomes. This award is a true success for training into an independent clinician-scientist, and leader in surgical oncology in the area of breast cancer.