The Breakfast Club impacts the St. Louis metropolitan community through education, awareness, resources and support concerning breast health, breast cancer, and breast cancer prevention and screening. The goals of The Breakfast Club are to support breast cancer survivors and their families, to provide breast health education and to raise awareness about breast cancer within the African American community.

Under Dr. Angela Hirbe is focused on Neurofibromatosis Type 1 research and treatment of individuals with these genetic cancer predisposition syndromes, the most common genetic condition that predisposes patients to developing cancer. The Hirbe lab is actively working to develop ways to diagnose cancer early in these patients and to identify and test novel therapies. 

Missouri Baptist Medical Center – Heartland Cancer Research provides patients from over 30 counties in southeastern and central Missouri with access to the highest quality cancer research studies. Through our research program, medically under-served patients obtain the latest treatments and cancer surveillance without having to travel to distant cancer centers.

http://heartlandncorp.com/

Helps even the youngest patients protect their fertility, giving them a better chance of one day having their own biological child. Certain necessary treatments for cancer, blood diseases, and other conditions can decrease fertility on a long-term basis. The Integrated Care and Fertility Preservation team performs procedures designed to preserve fertility, development, and hormonal health. The support of the St. Louis Men’s Group Against Cancer helps increase access to these life-changing services.

Under Dr. Nusayba Bagegni, drives early-stage breast cancer research, exploring new treatments and more personalized care. It supports advances like immune-based therapies, smarter chemo timing, and ways to prevent cancer from spreading. The program also builds key resources—like genetic tools, a breast tissue biobank, and patient support services—to improve care now and in the future.

Under Dr. Kiran Mahajan continues cutting-edge research. Past funding supported castrate resistant prostate cancer biomarker panel development. This identified tumor expressing HOXB13, which led to tumor spread. This led to publication and NIH funding. HOXB13 is a major regulator of immune suppression, and the current aim is to develop new therapeutic strategies to target HOXB13 using anti-sense oligonucleotides or small molecule inhibitors. Monitor response using PSMA-PET imaging – correlates with HOXB13 levels and helps identify high-risk tumors. 

Liver cancer is one of the most serious cancer-related health challenges worldwide, with limited treatment options and low long-term survival rates. This project focuses on exploring new and innovative approaches to treating this disease.

Under Dr. Cynthia Ma provides key research including collecting and analyzing breast cancer tissue and blood samples and developing lab-based models to study the disease. The program also runs an ongoing clinical trial for patients with stage II or III breast cancer, aiming to better understand what drives cancer growth and resistance to treatment. This research supports the development of new treatments and tools to guide chemotherapy decisions. Additional efforts include tracking genetic changes in cancer over time and studying past cases of advanced breast cancer.

Under Dr. Bettina Drake addresses the problem of identifying patients at high risk of dying from prostate cancer while they can still be treated, thereby increasing overall patient survival and enhancing quality of life. The project maintains a biorepository of patient samples and environmental data with the goal of identifying risk factors for aggressive prostate carcinoma. We seek to understand the risk factors for development of metastatic disease and other adverse outcomes to improve screening and treatment for prostate cancer.

https://siteman.wustl.edu/treatment/cancer-types/prostate/clinical-trials/