Doctor Wins Stipend to Study Breast Cancer

A Sherman Oaks resident and physician at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has won a $441,500 national award for breast cancer research.

Dr. Richard Pietras, 50, said he will use the funds to focus on post-menopausal women, who represent about 75% of all breast cancer diagnoses in North America.

Pietras said older women seem unconcerned about breast cancer since often the focus of awareness of the disease is directed at women in their 30s or 40s.

‘Women who are age 50 need to be advised that breast cancer is a high risk for them,” Pietras said. “The best way to prevent breast cancer is to stop it from starting in the first place.”

Pietras plans to use the award money over the next three years to fund the research of safer and more effective ways to stop breast cancer’s spread, especially for women seeking relief from post-menopausal symptoms. Currently, some post-menopausal treatments, such as estrogen, can stimulate cancerous growths in the breast. Others--created to offset that side effect--can increase the risk of uterine cancer.

The grant was awarded by the National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute, both divisions of the federal National Institutes of Health.

Dr. David Finkelstein, a member of the award committee, said that Pietras’ work may ultimately lead to the prevention of breast cancer. Dr. Judith Gasson, director of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, called Pietras a pioneer in the field. “I am delighted to see his work has been recognized,” she said.

Pietras, who has devoted much of his career to breast cancer research, is an assistant professor in the division of Hematology-Oncology at the UCLA School of Medicine.