I am preparing for the 2025 Pan-Mass Challenge at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. This will be the fourth PMC that I participated in and I am very enthusiastic about this event. 

In 2024, I rode to support breast cancer genetics research. We continue to collaborate with a medical oncologist from Spain, Dr. Adela Rodriguez-Hernandez, who is completing a 2-year clinical research fellowship at DFCI, and with Drs. Judy Garber and Huma Rana, she has advanced important cancer genetics projects. In collaboration with Ambry Genetics, we published on the prevalence of low allele frequency variants identified on germline cancer diagnostics and how these variants can represent constitutional mosaicism. Constitutional mosaicism when present in cancer risk genes like ATM, BRCA1, CHEK2, NF1 and TP53 can increase cancer risk and may inform screening recommendations. This work was published in Clinical Cancer Research and can be found online at: https://aacrjournals.org/clincancerres/article/31/13/2814/763085/Low-Allele-Frequency-Variants-Identified-on. We also have published an editorial focused on the management and care of patients with CHEK2 variants (see: https://www.oncotarget.com/article/28604/pdf/

We have many forthcoming projects in development and one goal is to develop gene-focused cohorts involving individuals with a hereditary cancer risk and a cancer diagnosis; and your contribution to my PMC will support this ongoing work.

As I train for the PMC, I will reflect on the DFCI mission, our patients and how important it is to advance research to improve care for patients with cancer or a cancer risk. I ride with these goals in mind.

Thank you for supporting my PMC.