City of Hope is a new model of cancer center. The combination of basic research, clinical investigations and compassionate care offers a unique opportunity to deliver on a vital mission: save lives worldwide.

Founded nearly a century ago, City of Hope is an internationally recognized biomedical research and treatment center. Today we treat over 17,000 patients a year and have more than 300 clinical studies underway, including more than fifty-five studies alone related to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Our pioneering science already has led to therapies such as Herceptin which targets the most aggressive breast cancers without affecting normal cells. Our scientific team engaged in trials that transformed treatment from radical mastectomy to breast conservation, and advanced the adoption of chemotherapy and hormonal therapy for patients.

In order to fight breast cancer, scientists need to know the enemy. So City of Hope researchers are working every day to learn more about how tumors grow and spread. One team has made breakthroughs identifying three proteins that, in large amounts, seem to make breast tumors more mobile and more resilient.

Gaining knowledge is only the first step. Our researchers are now developing and testing drugs that home in on the activities of these proteins and disrupt them. These treatments hold the potential to shrink tumors, or even trigger cellular suicide for breast cancer.

The majority of breast cancers — about 70 percent — are hormonedependent. In other words, they rely on estrogen to survive and grow. One type of medicine has proved effective in killing hormone-dependent breast cancer by blocking the action of aromatase, a substance in the body that produces estrogen. But these drugs can have serious side effects such as severe joint pain and bone loss. Some patients even become resistant to this medicine over time.

Dedicated to developing treatments that are not only more effective but also gentler on patients, City of Hope scientists are looking for a better way. One team is studying an investigational medication called panobinostat. It zeroes in on breast cancer cells and blocks their aromatase while leaving healthy cells alone.

Targeted therapies like this have the potential to result in more-effective treatments with fewer side effects. Our researchers are currently testing a combination therapy against breast cancer and trying to get to the heart of what makes panobinostat work. Read more about what City of Hope is doing about breast cancer >>

City of Hope researchers are looking for new ways to help women lower their risk of breast cancer — and some of those ways may reside right on the grocer’s shelves: white button mushrooms and grape seed extract, which is found in grape juice and red wine.

These food items contain ingredients that block a substance in the body, called aromatase, that helps produce estrogen. Hormones play a role in most cases of breast cancer, and blocking aromatase is one strategy already in wide use to fight breast cancer.

Scientists at City of Hope were the first to uncover the cancer-fighting potential of mushrooms and grape seed extract. Thanks to the nimble collaboration between our lab scientists and our clinical researchers, clinical trials are under way testing the anticancer power of these foods. Read more.

With your support, City of Hope could write the menu that lowers breast cancer risk — and set the table for new therapies that kill cancer.

Breast cancer can thrive because “good genes” that would normally suppress the growth of tumors have been silenced by the action of certain enzymes. City of Hope researchers are investigating medicines that clear out those enzymes, enabling the good genes to kick in and fight cancer.

These studies are bringing hope to patients with advanced breast cancer that has spread to other parts of their bodies. Clinical trials at City of Hope have shown promising results for a drug called vorinostat. By helping activate the right genes, this medicine stabilized cancer growth in a group of women with the most advanced stage of breast cancer.

Our researchers believe that, in combination with other drugs, vorinostat may be part of an effective treatment for women facing the form of breast cancer that is most difficult to treat. They are currently working together with other top cancer centers on clinical trials of one combination treatment.

Your Walk for Hope support empowers some of the best minds in science and medicine as they develop lifesaving treatments for the women who need it most.

Take action now

You can pay tribute to the courage of those who have faced breast cancer by helping City of Hope eradicate this devastating disease. We have a history of innovation after innovation, with more breakthroughs on the horizon. Please join us in our mission to save lives everywhere and register today.

Read more about what City of Hope is doing about breast cancer >>
Read more about the life-saving work being done at City of Hope >>