The Atif J. Khan Laboratory for Optimizing Breast Cancer Outcomes and Life Expectancy (LOBULE)

Atif Jalees Khan

Lab Head

Our research group uses a combination of preclinical, translational and clinical trial investigations to identify strategies that lead to the most favorable breast cancer outcomes, i.e.; maximizing the chances of disease control while minimizing toxicities.

We are a research collaborative that is interested in interventions that can improve breast cancer outcomes as they relate to local and regional control, both in terms of efficacy and toxicity.

Our projects

We have curated a set of breast cancer patients who did not respond favorably to chemotherapy and immunotherapy. We are sequencing these tumors and dissecting the tumor microenvironment to understand the contributing features of non-responsiveness (supported by the Breast Cancer SPORE)
We have created an immortalized fibroblast model (IMR90) to study the effects of acute vs chronic stimulation of STING by STING agonists, including radiation therapy, to understand the effects of interferon signaling and innate immune signaling.
We are using tumor specimens collected from our trial patients to understand how radiotherapy engages with tumor immune response.
We are developing combination therapies of DNA damage repair inhibitors to augment the lethal effects of radioligand therapies without increasing host toxicity.
We have several ongoing retrospective clinical projects examining predictors of outcomes for breast cancer patients receiving radiotherapy

Publications

Haffty BG, Harrold E, Khan A, Pathare P, Ward BA, Matloff E, Alvarez-Franco M, Bale AE. (2002). Conservatively Managed Breast Cancer in Young Women: Outcome as a Function of BRCA 1/2 Status. Lancet, 27;359(9316), 1471-7.

Khan AJ, Wall B, Ahlawat S, Green C, Schiff D, Mehnert JM, Goydos JS, Chen S, Haffty BG. (2011). Riluzole Enhances Ionizing Radiation-induced Cytotoxicity in Human Melanoma Cells that Ectopically Express Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor In Vitro and In Vivo. Clinical Cancer Research, 17(7), 1807-14. PMCID: PMC3070864

Wall BA, Wangari-Talbot J, Shin SS, Schiff D, Sierra J, Yu LJ, Khan A, Haffty B, Goydos JS, Chen S. (2014) Disruption of GRM1-mediated signalling using riluzole results in DNA damage in melanoma cells. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 27(2):263-74. PMCID: PMC3947419

Wall BA, Yu LJ, Khan A, Haffty B, Goydos JS, Chen S. (2015) Riluzole is a radio-sensitizing agent in an in vivo model of brain metastasis derived from GRM1 expressing human melanoma cells. Pigment Cell Melanoma Res. 28(1):105-9. PMCID: PMC5661976

Khan AJ, La Cava S, Mehta M, Schiff D, Thandoni A, Jhawar SR, Danish S, Haffty BG, Chen S. (2019)The Glutamate Release Inhibitor Riluzole Increases DNA Damage and Enhances Cytotoxicity in Human Glioma Cells, In vitro and In vivo. Oncotarget. 10(29): 2824-2834. PMCID: PMC6497458

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