Dr. Irene L. Andrulis

A molecular biologist, senior investigator and co-head of the Fred. A. Litwin Centre for Cancer Genetics at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Dr. Andrulis' pioneering work in breast cancer is world-renowned. Her research on familial breast cancer has the honour of being one of only six international registries chosen for funding by the US National Institutes of Health. Dr. Andrulis also holds the Anne Tanenbaum Chair in Molecular Biology at Mount Sinai Hospital.

Dr. Andrulis and her colleagues established that a genetic test could identify women with node negative breast cancer (cancer that has not metastasized to the lymph nodes) who are at increased risk of recurrence of the disease. The study was the first prospective study on the importance of HER2 in node negative breast cancer recurrence.

A major goal of Dr. Andrulis' work is the identification and characterization of molecular genetic alterations in cancer and the application of this knowledge to clinical practice. She has developed multi-disciplinary collaborations to identify patients at greater risk of dying from breast cancer, to conduct clinical trials to find the most appropriate therapies and, as importantly, to spare 75 to 80% of women at risk of breast cancer from over treatment and its side effects. Dr. Andrulis and her team are also looking for predictors that will identify risk, prognosis, treatment outcomes and recurrence of sarcoma.