Triple-Negative Breast Cancer and the TRIM37 Protein

It’s been known for many years that Black women are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. If diagnosed with this type of breast cancer, Black women are also more than twice as likely to die from the disease than women of other races and ethnicities. Researchers have been studying a number of factors that may play a role in these disparities. Dr. Sanchita Bhatnagar’s research has found that cells that have too much TRIM37 protein are much more likely to become cancerous. She and her colleagues also have found that the breast tissue of Black women are much more likely to have high levels of TRIM37. Listen to the episode to hear Dr. Bhatnagar explain: how she began studying the TRIM37 gene how a variant in the TRIM37 gene that causes more of the TRIM37 protein to be made is more common in Black women that white women how a medicine that targets the TRIM37 protein could help stop triple-negative breast cancer from metastasizing next steps for her research