Vanderbilt Health researchers Adam Rosenberg, PhD, and Laura Kennedy, MD, PhD, have received a 2026 “Mars Shot” Research Award to support studies aimed at improving the diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma, an invasive breast cancer that is difficult to detect.
The $100,000 award was announced Oct. 15 by the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) and the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance Inc. (LBCA), which jointly funded the award.
Approximately 48,000 women are diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma in the United States each year, yet the disease remains “underappreciated and under-researched,” SNMMI President-Elect Gary Ulaner, MD, PhD, said in a news release.
Rosenberg and Kennedy “will use novel molecular imaging to help open new therapeutic options to patients …, which is very good news indeed,” said Ulaner, Chair of Molecular Imaging and Therapy at the Hoag Family Cancer Institute and Professor of Radiology and Translational Genomics at the University of Southern California.
Rosenberg is Research Associate Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and Director of Radiochemistry Research at the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science. Kennedy is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology. Both are members of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
The focus of their research is HER2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) overexpression, which in breast cancer is associated with poor outcomes. Targeted anti-HER2 antibody therapies have improved survival considerably. However, it is difficult to accurately determine the HER2 status of invasive lobular carcinoma that has spread, or metastasized.
As a result, the burden of disease is frequently underestimated; invasive lobular carcinoma is often diagnosed in later stages and with larger tumors; and many patients are excluded from clinical trials of targeted HER2 therapies such as combined trastuzumab and deruxtecan due to insufficiently measurable disease.
One promising approach is to use positron emission tomography (PET), a noninvasive imaging technique, to detect ABY-025, an anti-HER2 antibody made by the Swedish biopharmaceutical firm Affibody, which has been labeled with gallium-68, a positron-emitting radioisotope of gallium.
Rosenberg and Kennedy will use this approach to quantify HER2 expression throughout the body including bone, the lining of the abdominal cavity, and gastrointestinal sites that cannot be sampled, visualized on conventional imaging, or accurately measured by biopsy.
If this imaging technique finds “actionable HER2” in tumors that were labeled “HER2 zero” by conventional immunohistochemistry testing, “it would show molecular imaging working as a quantitative predictive biomarker that decides drug eligibility, not just as a way to locate disease,” Rosenberg said.
“At Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, we are committed to advancing precision oncology through innovative research that improves the lives of patients,” said Vanderbilt-Ingram Director Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and Professor of Medicine.
“Drs. Rosenberg and Kennedy are leading groundbreaking work to better understand HER2 expression in invasive lobular carcinoma, with the potential to expand treatment opportunities and advance more personalized care for patients with breast cancer,” Park said.
Rosenberg is a synthetic organic chemist and radiochemist whose research focuses on optimizing existing radiopharmaceutical production methods, novel synthesis methods, and development of novel radiotracers, with a recent emphasis on the practical use of smaller biologics.
Kennedy’s previous research has focused on predicting immunotherapy response of HER2-positive and triple-negative breast cancer using breast imaging and on developing improved systemic treatment strategies for early-stage lobular breast cancer through her investigator-initiated clinical trial, “Neoadjuvant Neratinib in Stage I-III HER2-Mutated Lobular Breast Cancers” (NCT05919108).
The SNMMI Mars Shot Research Fund, established in 2023, provides resources that translate visionary nuclear medicine imaging, radiopharmaceutical therapy, and data science research or projects into tools or treatments which will help improve the lives of patients.
