Alice (Ellie) Guardino

Dr. Guardino’s research pursuits have led to important discoveries in basic immunology and directly and indirectly to the development of immunotherapy’s for human diseases. She has studied the mechanisms by which the immune system recognizes foreign substances like viruses, microorganisms and cancer and the ways the immune system becomes deregulated and attacks “self” as seen in autoimmunity. Her research identified the cellular interactions involved in immune recognition and led to treatment strategies for cancer. She is investigating modulation of the immune system to recognize and kill cancer cells. Dr. Guardino’s studies are aimed at the development of biologic treatment approaches for cancer with less toxicity than standard chemotherapy.

Dr. Guardino is initiating a clinical trial combining a targeted biologic therapy with standard treatments prior to surgery in patients with high risk breast cancer. She is combining standard chemotherapy with a new biologic agent that targets HER2neu on breast cancer cells. The combination should disrupt proliferation pathways and growth of cancer cells. The goal is to improve tumor cell killing with little or no added side effects over chemotherapy alone. The trial also investigates new imaging modalities using breast MRI to monitor tumor responses. The trial will also integrate efforts in microarray analysis to examine genes expressed by the tumor cells. Dr. Guardino will evaluate tumor cell markers to better understand this disease.

Dr. Guardino has also initiated a clinical trial combining standard chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer with a new and very promising biologic treatment for cancer targeting the development of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) which allows a cancer to grow and metastasize. Bevacizumab is a monocloncal antibody which inhibits the protein thought to regulate angiogenesis. By combining bevacizumab with chemotherapy without overlapping side effects she hopes to see higher response rates and improved survival in women with advanced breast cancer.

Dr. Guardino is developing immune therapies and vaccines for breast cancer including dendritic cell approaches and recombinant gene therapy vaccines for early breast cancers that are a high risk and for advanced breast cancer. She continues her dendritic cell vaccine approaches for other cancers while developing this program for breast cancer.

Dr. Guardino is actively involved in community education on breast cancer and hopes to keep women in our local and extended community up to date on the lastest diagnostic tests for detection and advances on the treatment of breast cancer.