Bre-Anne Fifield

University of Windsor · Department of Biological Sciences

Breast cancer is the second most common cancer worldwide. There are four main subtypes of breast cancer, one of which involves positivity for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). Here, we present a case series of unusually long survival in three patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. All cases involved post-menopausal wom...

Background The cell cycle of mammary stem cells must be tightly regulated to ensure normal homeostasis of the mammary gland to prevent abnormal proliferation and susceptibility to tumorigenesis. The atypical cell cycle regulator, Spy1 can override cell cycle checkpoints, including those activated by the tumour suppressor p53 which mediates mammary...

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous cancer type that lacks receptors for estrogen (ER), progesterone (PR), and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 proteins (HER-2). An important prognostic factor for breast cancer patients is the tumour grade, which is the degree of cell proliferation or differentiation of the tumour cells...

Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive subtype of breast cancer that relies on systemic chemotherapy as its primary means of treatment. Cell cycle regulators are enriched in drug resistant forms of the disease supporting the potential of targeting cell cycle checkpoints as a therapeutic direction to re-sensitize patients to treatment. Spy1...

Background The cell cycle of mammary stem cells must be tightly regulated to ensure normal homeostasis of the mammary gland to prevent abnormal proliferation and susceptibility to tumorigenesis. The atypical cell cycle regulator, Spy1 can override cell cycle checkpoints, including those activated by the tumour suppressor p53 which mediates mammary...

Populations of quiescent adult neural stem cells (NSCs) that reside in the mammalian brain aid in neurogenesis throughout life and can be identified by molecular markers including Nestin, a type VI intermediate filament protein. Cell cycle regulation plays an important role in determining the fate of NSCs in the adult brain and maintaining a crucia...

Cancer stem cells lie at the heart of progression and relapse for many solid tumours including breast cancers. The Breast Cancer Stem Cell (BCSC) population is typically isolated via a combination of markers utilizing various staining techniques which prevents the ability to track dynamic changes in expression and to dissect the role in pathogenesi...

Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) play a key role in activating essential cell biology processes including cellular proliferation. Inappropriate regulation of CDKs has been implicated in driving several different forms of cancer. One of the regulatory factors is the need to bind to Cyclin-partners before they can be activated and advance the cell cyc...

570 Background: Over 8900 Canadians are diagnosed with bladder cancer every year, ranking it the fifth most frequent cancer. It can manifest as either non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) or muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). The majority of patients initially receive a diagnosis of NMIBC, although high-grade NMIBC has a 50–70% recurrence...

Glucocorticoids, such as dexamethasone (Dex), are used to prevent common side effects induced by chemotherapy and are heavily prescribed for solid cancers such as breast cancer. There is substantial pre-clinical data to support that Dex activation of the glucocorticoid receptor overrides chemotherapy-induced apoptosis in breast cancer cell lines. T...

Purposec-Myc is frequently upregulated in breast cancers, however, targeting c-Myc has proven to be a challenge. Targeting of downstream mediators of c-Myc, such as the ‘cyclin-like’ cell cycle regulator Spy1, may be a viable therapeutic option in a subset of breast cancer subtypes.Methods Mouse mammary tumor cells isolated from MMTV-Myc mice and h...

Addition of platinums to combination chemotherapy for triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has shown efficacy and is increasingly accepted in the clinic, yet optimal delivery is unknown. A prospective clinical trial with TNBC patients was conducted to determine the optimal chemotherapy regimen to deliver carboplatin with standard dose dense ACT. Ti...

Purpose c-Myc is frequently upregulated in breast cancers, however, targeting c-Myc has proven to be a challenge. Targeting of downstream mediators of c-Myc, such as the ‘cyclin-like’ cell cycle regulator Spy1, may be a viable therapeutic option in a subset of breast cancer subtypes. Methods Mouse mammary tumour cells isolated from MMTV-Myc mice a...

Significance Glutamate-ureido-lysine (GUL) probes are specific for prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA), overexpressed by most prostate cancers. This antigen can be lost as the cancer progresses. Recent reports have indicated that GUL probes can still identify these PSMA-negative tumors, indicating that the expression of alternative PSMA-like...

Fully differentiated cells can be reprogrammed through ectopic expression of key transcription factors to create induced pluripotent stem cells. These cells share many characteristics of normal embryonic stem cells and have great promise in disease modelling and regenerative medicine. The process of remodelling has its limitations, including a very...

p>Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is highly overexpressed in most prostate cancers and is clinically visualized using PSMA-specific probes incorporating Glutamate-Ureido-Lysine (GUL). PSMA is effectively absent from certain high-mortality, treatment-resistant subsets of prostate cancers, such as neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC); howe...

568 Background: Bladder cancer is the fifth most common cancer and eighth leading cause of cancer related-death in North America. It can present as non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) and/or muscle invasive bladder (MIBC). Although genomic profiling studies have established that low-grade NMIBC and MIBC are genetically distinct, high-grade N...

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women and one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Proper regulation of cell cycle checkpoints plays a critical role in preventing the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Perturbations in the expression or activity of mediators of cell cycle progression or checkpoint activ...

Purpose: Although the incidence of de novo neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) is rare, recent data suggests that low expression of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is associated with a spectrum of neuroendocrine (NE) hallmarks and androgen receptor (AR)-suppression in prostate cancer (PC). Previous clinical reports indicate that PCs wit...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. A variety of factors can contribute to the onset of this disease, including viral infection, obesity, alcohol abuse and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). These stressors predominantly introduce chronic inflammation leading to liver cirrhosis and...

Breast cancer is the most common cancer to affect women and one of the leading causes of cancer related deaths. Maintenance of genomic stability and proper regulation of cell cycle checkpoints play a critical role in preventing the accumulation of deleterious mutations. Perturbations in the expression or activity of mediators of cell cycle progress...

Environmental damage, depleting fossil fuels and energy security are major factors driving intensive research efforts to develop carbon neutral or carbon negative technologies which can be used to produce electricity and chemicals. Technologies under development to achieve this goal include those based on bioelectrochemical, biological, thermal and...

Cyclin-dependent kinases (Cdks) are principal drivers of cell division and are an important therapeutic target to inhibit aberrant proliferation. Cdk enzymatic activity is tightly controlled through cyclin interactions, posttranslational modifications, and binding of inhibitors such as the p27 tumor suppressor protein. Spy1/RINGO (Spy1) proteins bi...

Families of cyclin-like proteins have emerged that bind and activate cyclin dependent kinases (Cdk)s, directing the phosphorylation of noncanonical Cdk substrates. One of these proteins, Spy1, has demonstrated the unique ability to directly bind and activate both Cdk1 and Cdk2, as well as binding and promoting the degradation of at least one Cdk in...