Advancing Breast Cancer Research
The mission of the Catherine Peachey Fund is to promote advances in breast cancer research and treatment. We provide financial support to research and programs that we believe are best positioned to move from the bench to the clinic, and impact patient clinical outcomes.
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The Catherine Peachey Fund has provided nearly $4 million dollars to breast cancer research and programs in Indiana, making a global impact.
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The fund is unique in its efficient funding process and is fully staffed by volunteers. We operate at near zero operating costs so that all funds raised go directly to research.
Current Projects
The Catherine Peachey Fund has invested nearly $4 million to breast cancer research and projects in Indiana.
$100,000: Novel Inhibitors that Target Bone Metastasis
Led by Laurie Littlepage, Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame’s Harper Cancer Research Institute
Inhibiting bone metastasis and secondary metastasis from bone will significantly improve breast cancer patient prognosis. This research hopes to determine a treatment that will be specific to inhibiting bone metastasis without causing the systemic toxic effects often experienced by patients. Our gift will be used to purchase required equipment, mouse support, and graduate student support.
$11,525: Investigating Nonsurgical Prevention Therapy for BRCA1/2 Carriers
Led by Jaeyeon Kim, Ph.D. and Rana German at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
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In addition to gene-mutation analysis, researchers also plan to analyze changes in metabolite in serum samples from the Komen Tissue Bank to identify metabolomic changes linked to progesterone levels and progesterone signaling. This research has promising potential to help improve individual risk assessment among BRCA1/2 carriers beyond BRCA1/2 mutations and usher in nonsurgical cancer prevention, sparing these women prophylactic surgeries.
$15,000: Improving breast cancer radiotherapy by theragnostic targeting of tumor supporting macrophages
Led by Matthew Scarpelli, Ph.D. at Purdue University’s Women’s Global Health Institute
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The main objective of this project is to determine the cytotoxic mechanisms and anti-tumor efficacy of integrating TAM targeting within radiotherapy regimens for breast cancer. This research will provide knowledge regarding the role of immunosuppressive macrophages in modulating radiotherapy responses in breast cancer; and it will lead to development of more effective therapeutic strategies for advanced breast cancers. Given ferumoxytol’s safety in humans has already been extensively studied and it is widely available as an FDA approved compound, repurposing ferumoxytol to augment breast cancer radiotherapy could lead to rapid reductions in morbidity and mortality.
