Discoverer of Breast Cancer Gene, Dr. Patricia Berg, to Give Keynote Speech, News Conference on New Genes, Progress in Cancer

3/8/2004

From: Bob Weiner or Jeff Buchanan for Dr. Berg, 301-283-0821 or 202-329-1700, or Sue Cleveland for Gilda's Club, 954-763-6776

News Advisory:

The discoverer of the breast cancer gene, Dr. Patricia Berg, will give a keynote speech and news conference on new gene and progress in cancer at Gilda's Club in Ft. Lauderdale on March 13. Dr. Berg will keynote S. Fla. Gilda's Club "Day of Research and Hope."

WHEN: 11 a.m., Saturday, March 13

WHERE: Gilda's Club, 119 Rose Drive, Fort Lauderdale

-- News Conference Immediately Following

Dr. Patricia Berg, Ph.D., of George Washington University Medical Center, who last year led a multi-university team which discovered a new gene, BP1, activated in 80 percent of breast cancer patients, will keynote a "Day of Research and Hope" at Gilda's Club South Florida at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 13, at 119 Rose Drive, Fort Lauderdale. The event is open to the public and media. Dr. Berg will be available to the press before her 11 a.m. talk and will hold a news conference immediately following, at approximately 11:45 a.m.

Dr. Berg will discuss her discovery and progress toward new drugs and diagnostic tools in cancer, including a blood test for early detection of the new gene and drugs that may suppress it or be helpful in breast cancer.

40,000 women die of breast cancer annually, and 212,000 women - - one in every eight women over a lifetime -- and 1,500 men contract the disease per year.

The Berg team's discovery was reported in the scientific peer- review journal, Breast Cancer Research, and in mainstream media including CNN, AP, Reuters, the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Prevention Magazine, and others. Dr. Berg calls the research and discovery of the gene "an early significant finding and a target for therapy." She adds, "Development of tests for early diagnosis and drugs to suppress the gene would be major developments to assist women with this deadly disease."

Dr. Berg had earlier discovered and published that BP1 is involved in leukemia, and she is testing its potential involvement in other cancers.

Dr. Berg, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C., directs the breast cancer research laboratory at GWUMC and is Chair of the GWUMC Research Committee.

Other experts speaking at the Gilda's Club "Day of Research and Hope" include Dr. Nicholas Tranakas, Surgical Oncology Director, cancer services for the North Broward Hospital District; Dr. Atif Hussein, Medical Oncology Director of Clinical Research, Memorial Regional Hospital, Comprehensive Cancer Center; Dr. Herbert Brizel, radiation oncologist, former Chairman of cancer committee, Memorial Healthcare System; Alex Aller, Ph.D., executive director of Rumbaugh-Goodwin Institute for Cancer Research; and Dr. Alan Pierce, anatomic and clinical pathologist, Chief of Pathology, Westside Regional Medical Center and Wellington Regional Medical Center.

Gilda's Club is a free not-for-profit, non-residential, social and emotional cancer support community, named after Saturday Night Live's Gilda Radner, who died of cancer.