Jenny C. Chang, M.D.

Jenny C. Chang, M.D. 

	Jenny C. Chang, M.D. Senior Member The Methodist Hospital Research Institute Director, Methodist Cancer Center The Methodist Hospital Professor of Medicine Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University Clinic Phone: 713-441-9948 Research Phone: 713-441-0629 Email: ccresearch@tmhs.org
Education

Biography

Dr. Jenny C. Chang is Director of the Cancer Center at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. She obtained her medical degree at Cambridge University in England, and then completed fellowship training in medical oncology at the Royal Marsden Hospital/Institute for Cancer Research in the United Kingdom. She was also awarded a research doctorate from the University of London. There, she developed an interest in breast cancer, particularly in the area of prognostic and predictive markers. She used the clinical situation of locally advanced breast cancer, in which patients are traditionally treated with pre-operative therapy, to assess the use of such markers in predicting treatment response. Her recent work has focused on the intrinsic therapy resistance of cancer stem cells, which has lead to several publications and international presentations. In addition, she has been awarded several federal grants to evaluate novel biologic agents, and holds patents on new technologic advances including high throughput molecular profiling.

Description of Research

Dr. Chang has worked in the filed of tumor-initiating cells for more than five years. After her discovery that tumor-initiating cells are chemo-resistant, and that targeting the EGFR/HER2 pathway can decrease this subpopulation, Dr. Chang has played a key role in demonstrating some of the limitations and mechanisms of tumor-initiating cells (Creighton et al., 2009; Li et al., 2008). Her work is now focused on the mechanisms that regulate TICs, as well as initiating and planning clinical trials that target this critical tumor initiating subpopulation. She is also interested in characterizing the cross-talk between these different pathways that may lead to mechanisms of resistance, and has identified some of the chief regulatory pathways involved in TIC self-renewal. She is a world-renown clinical investigator, credited as one of the first to describe intrinsic chemo-resistance of tumor-initiating cells.

Major Areas of Research

Cancer, stem cells, breast, high throughput

Recent Publications

Litzenburger BC, Creighton CJ, Tsimelzon A, Chan BT, Hilsenbeck SG, Wang T, Carboni JM, Gottardis MM, Huang F, Chang JC, Lewis MT, Rimawi MF, Lee AV. High IGF-IR activity in triple-negative breast cancer cell lines and tumorgrafts correlates with sensitivity to anti-IGF-IR therapy. Clinical Cancer Research. 2010 Dec 22.

Atkinson R, Zhang M, Diagaradjane P, Peddibhotla S, Contreras A, Hilsenbeck S, Woodward W, Krishnan S, Chang J, Rosen J. Thermal Enhancement with Optically Activated Gold Nanoshells Sensitizes Breast Cancer Stem Cells to Radiation Therapy. Science Translational Medicine. 2(55):1-10, 2010.

Rodriguez AA, Makris A, Wu MF, Rimawi M, Froehlich A, Dave B, Hilsenbeck SG, Chamness GC, Lewis MT, Dobrolecki LE, Jain D, Sahoo S, Osborne CK, Chang JC. DNA repair signature is associated with anthracycline response in triple negative breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 123:189-96, 2010.

Dave B, Wynne R, Su Y, Korourian S, Chang JC, Simmen RC. Enhanced mammary progesterone receptor-A isoform activity in the promotion of mammary tumor progression by dietary soy in rats. Nutrition and Cancer. 62(6):774-82, 2010.

Yang WT, Lewis MT, Hess K, Wong H, Tsimelzon A, Karadag N, Cairo M, Wei C, Meric-Bernstam F, Brown P, Arun B, Hortobagyi GN, Sahin A, Chang JC. Decreased TGFbeta signaling and increased COX2 expression in high risk women with increased mammographic breast density. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 119:305-14, 2010.

Speers C, Tsimelzon A, Sexton K, Herrick AM, Gutierrez C, Culhane A, Quackenbush J, Hilsenbeck S, Chang J, Brown P. Identification of novel kinase targets for the treatment of estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. Clinical Cancer Research. 15(20): 6327-6340, 2009.

Creighton CJ, Li X, Landis M, Dixon JM, Neumeister VM, Sjolund A, Rimm DL, Wong H, Rodriguez A, Herschkowitz JI, Fan C, Zhang X, He X, Pavlick A, Gutierrez MC, Renshaw L, Larionov AA, Faratian D, Hilsenbeck SG, Perou CM, Lewis MT, Rosen JM, Chang JC. Residual breast cancers after conventional therapy display mesenchymal as well as tumor-initiating features. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences. 106(33):13820-5, 2009.

Wu MF, Hilsenbeck SG, Tham YL, Kramer R, Elledge RM, Chang JC, Friedman LC. The efficacy of sertraline for controlling hot flashes in women with or at high risk of developing breast cancer. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 118:369-75, 2009.

Li X, Lewis MT, Huang J, Gutierrez C, Osborne CK, Wu MF, Hilsenbeck SG, Pavlick A, Zhang X, Chamness GC, Wong H, Rosen J, Chang JC. Intrinsic Resistance of Tumorigenic Breast Cancer Cells to Chemotherapy. Journal of The National Cancer Institute. 100:672-9, 2008.

Chang JC, Makris A, Gutierrez MC, Hilsenbeck SG, Hackett JR, Jeong J, Liu ML, Baker J, Clark-Langone K, Baehner FL, Sexton K, Mohsin S, Gray T, Alvarez L, Chamness GC, Osborne CK, Shak S. Gene expression patterns in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded core biopsies predict docetaxel chemosensitivity in breast cancer patients. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. 108:233-40, 2008.

Links

Dr. Chang's Physician Profile 
Methodist Cancer Center