Rita Mukhtar, M.D. Awarded Two Grants to Study Lobular Breast Cancer and Inspires Crowd-funding Effort
UCSF surgeon-scientist Rita Mukhtar, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of General Surgery, has been awarded two grants to study lobular breast cancer. This work is also being crowd-funded by one of Dr. Mukhtar's patients through a novel mechanism offered by the UCSF Foundation, "Together at UCSF.”
Dr. Mukhtar’s clinical and translational research program focuses on invasive lobular carcinoma, the second most common type of breast cancer, and an understudied disease with unique treatment challenges. The Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center awarded Dr. Mukhtar a Research Allocation Program (RAP) grant to study genomic profiling for ERBB2 mutations as potential therapeutic targets in invasive lobular carcinoma of the breast.
Additionally, the American Cancer Society (ACS) awarded Dr. Mukhtar a research grant based on her proposal: "Evaluating response to endocrine therapy in invasive lobular carcinoma using dedicated breast PET with [18F]-fluoroestradiol.” This funding supports a collaborative study with image scientists at UCSF to find more accurate imaging tests for women with lobular breast cancer.
Ali Dorris, a patient of Dr. Mukhtar, has also launched a personal fundraising page to raise $100,000 for lobular breast cancer-specific research at UCSF. As noted by Ms. Dorris:
I knew I wanted to be treated at UCSF. But, I wasn’t a UCSF patient...yet. I needed to get in, and the holiday weekend was about to start. I called the breast care center at UCSF expecting to leave a desperate message. Instead, I spoke to a practice coordinator. And, within 10 minutes of my diagnosis, Dr. Rita Mukhtar, a breast surgeon at UCSF who specializes in lobular breast cancer, called me back. She explained the unique and challenging nature of lobular breast cancer and offered to squeeze me into her schedule asap.
The campaign has thus far raised over $15,000.
