Susan Domchek, MD, executive director of the Basser Center, took part in a live interview on the TODAY Show with breast cancer survivor and Basser Advisory Board member Jill Martin to share the importance of knowing your family cancer history and how it fits into genetic testing.

TODAY Show contributor and breast cancer survivor Jill Martin launched a new clothing collaboration with the NBA and WNBA to raise awareness of breast cancer and genetic testing, especially for cancers related to the BRCA gene mutation.

Dr. Susan Domchek spoke with breast cancer survivor and Basser Advisory Board member, reporter Stacey Sager, about how the future of breast cancer treatment is brighter than ever, with a wealth of new therapies and research making it into the clinic.

Basser executive director Susan Domchek, MD, explains how a class of drugs called PARP inhibitors can help treat cancers related to BRCA mutations to ABC7 news reporter Stacey Sager, a member of the Basser Center Advisory Board who shared an update on her cancer journey.

Kara Maxwell, MD, PhD, director of the Basser Center for BRCA’s Men & BRCA program, explained why clinicians should be “vigilant” about offering genetic testing to men.

Kara Maxwell, MD, PhD, director of our Men & BRCA program, worked with CureBRCA to publish a new paper that compiles various approved guidelines for men with BRCA mutations, including statistical tables that compare the risks of certain cancers for men with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations.

Ronny Drapkin, MD, PhD, director of the Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center and director of Gynecologic Cancer Research in the Basser Center for BRCA, discussed why it’s difficult to detect ovarian cancer in its earliest stages and how new drugs like PARP inhibitors have made a difference in ovarian cancer treatment.

Susan Domchek, MD, director of the Basser Center for BRCA, discussed her path to breast cancer genetics research and how the Basser Center is working to improve care and future outcomes for people with a family history of cancer, including carriers of BRCA gene mutations, which increase an individual’s risk of developing certain cancers.

Cancer vaccines have been a dream for decades, but researchers are making progress, as evidenced in a variety of ongoing clinical trials, including one led by executive director Susan Domchek, MD. “Getting involved in clinical trials is of the utmost importance if we want to change the trajectory of difficult-to-treat diseases,” said Filko Prugo, a BRCA2 mutation carrier who is participating in the Basser trial.

Kara Maxwell, MD, PhD, director of the Basser Center's Men & BRCA program, discussed research her team presented at the 2024 AACR Annual Meeting, including strategies to optimize genetic testing to better inform decision-making in prostate cancer treatment and the prevalence of germline mutations in racially diverse cohorts of patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

The clinical utilization of genetic testing in metastatic prostate cancer cases is rising. Kara Maxwell, MD, PhD, discusses research on genetic testing results in metastatic prostate cancer patients and results of prostate cancer genetic testing in diverse populations.