Department of Pathology

Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY

Rachel Hazan, Ph.D. is a Professor of Pathology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, NY. Her research focuses on understanding how aggressive breast cancers spread and recur after treatment, with a particular emphasis on triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a form that lacks effective targeted therapies.

Working in collaboration with Dr. Larry Norton at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. Hazan’s laboratory investigates the molecular signals that drive metastasis and tumor “self-seeding”—the process by which disseminated cancer cells return to the original tumor site, fueling recurrence and progression.

Using TNBC tumors, her team has identified a highly plastic subpopulation of tumor cells with stem-like properties that fuels metastasis and possibly also self-seeding. These cells are regulated by Wnt/ERK signaling, which promotes stemness and self-renewal. Importantly, they discovered that combined ERK/CDK4/6 inhibition suppresses this program, forcing epithelial differentiation and depleting the cancer stem cell pool. Although CDK4/6 inhibitors are approved for ER-positive breast cancer, their findings reveal that a subset of RB-deficient, RBL-positive TNBCs may also benefit from such therapy.

Supported by the CBCF, Dr. Hazan’s work aims to uncover the signaling mechanisms that govern metastasis and recurrence, ultimately leading to the development of effective anti-metastatic treatments. Her findings were recently published in the British Journal of Cancer and featured in a forthcoming Springer Nature research blog.