Mastro Receives Stepping Stone Award and Presents Workshop at Keystone Breast Cancer Conference

1 April 2005 — Andrea Mastro, professor of microbiology and cell biology at Penn State, recently received a Stepping Stone Award from the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition at the Keystone Breast Cancer Conference in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The award will help to support her research on the interaction of metastatic breast-cancer cells with bone cells. She is particularly interested in osteoblasts, the cells that normally build bone. In a paper she wrote in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, Mastro showed that, in the presence of breast-cancer cells, osteoblasts undergo increased destruction by a process known as apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Under these circumstances, the osteoblasts are unable to restore the bone. At the same time, bone-degrading cells called osteoclasts are activated, causing more even damage.

Each year tens of thousands of Pennsylvania residents opt to have a portion of their state-income-tax refunds support breast and cervical cancer research by checking a box on their state tax returns, or by making personal contributions through the Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition presents annual Stepping Stone Awards to researchers who have published papers as a result of research grants received through the tax-return-check-off program.

The Keystone Breast Cancer Conference provides scientific training seminars and educational workshops that allow participants to hear the latest breast-cancer updates directly from some of the world’s leading physicians and professionals working with women affected by the disease. Mastro was the first Stepping Stone Award recipient to also present a workshop at the conference. She presented a talk titled “The Basic Science of Breast Cancer.” Other workshops included such topics as new treatments, breast reconstruction, and the study of genetics and breast-cancer risk.

Founded in 1993, the Pennsylvania Breast Cancer Coalition is a non-profit organization that serves each of the state’s 67 counties through a statewide network of volunteers. Its mission is to improve the quality of breast cancer education, research, and outreach in the state and “to find a cure for breast cancer now, so our daughters won’t have to.”

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