WTA Foundation grant supports Dr. Rebecca Riggins' breast cancer research
Dr. Rebecca Riggins is the fifth recipient of a two-year grant from the American Cancer Society (ACS) funded by the WTA Foundation and partner Cancer Racquet Research to conduct breast cancer research.
“The mission of the WTA Foundation is to advance women’s health,” said WTA Foundation Executive Director Ann Austin. “Dr. Riggins’ goal is to ensure that breast cancer treatments are effective and continue to save more lives.”
For 23 years, Dr. Riggins, who earned her PhD in Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology, has committed her career to saving lives through cancer research conducted with her team of researchers at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center that treats all aspects of cancer from clinical trials to survivorship.
Dr. Riggins successfully applied for a specific grant through the American Cancer Society to study “Dynamic Precision Medicine for Drug Resistant HER2+/ER+ Breast Cancer.” She explained that breast cancer is not one disease and that there are different ways used by oncologists to classify the disease by receptors including hormone receptors and proteins which tell what therapies can be used to treat the cancer. She is focusing her research on determining the right way to combine or sequence therapies to understand how cells respond to each of the drugs.
Through this research grant, Dr. Riggins is also supporting the next generation of cancer researchers on her team which includes clinicians, two PhD students, two computer scientists, and a mathematician for deep sequencing of DNA from the cancer cells. She emphasized that “learning from textbooks ends in the lab.”
Among her responsibilities, Dr. Riggins teaches and lectures at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center on topics such as cancer biology and breast cancer disparities as well as conducting a Responsible Conduct in Research course. She also values the opportunities as a reality check to speak directly to and learn from cancer survivors and caregivers as part of the Georgetown Breast Cancer Advocates program.
“We are proud to support women researchers in this important area for women’s health which our WTA players continue to experience firsthand,” concluded Austin.