# Integrating Low-Cost Paper-Based Devices and Personalized Immunotherapeutics to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer

> **NIH NIH U54** · DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $370,300

## Abstract

Integrating Low-Cost Paper-Based Devices and Personalized 
Immunotherapeutics to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer 
Summary 
After a breast cancer patient has an initial appointment with her clinician, one 
possible outcome is that the cancer tests positive for one or more clinically 
significant cell surface “biomarkers”, most notably estrogen receptor (ER), 
progesterone receptor (PR), or HER2. In this relatively good scenario, the patient would likely be prescribed 
a personalized therapy such as a hormone therapy (in the case of ER+ and/or PR+ cancers) or with drugs 
that specifically target HER2+ cells (e.g. the monoclonal antibody, mAb, Herceptin™). These personalized 
drugs are less toxic than general anti- cancer drugs such as chemotherapeutic cocktails. 
 In a different, and relatively dire scenario, a patient is told she has “triple negative” breast cancer 
(ER-, PR-, HER2-), meaning her cancer cells lack hormone receptors like ER or PR, and lack HER2. Triple 
negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents 15-20% of all breast cancer cases, and disproportionately 
affects minority populations. Without personalized therapies, this patient is now left to suffer through 
treatment with non-targeted and toxic drugs (chemotherapeutics) that come with a host of debilitating side 
effects. Commonly, drastic measures, such as mastectomy, are required in order to fully remove all tissue 
that could serve as a source of, or substrate for, new tumors. The five-year survival outcomes of populations 
that test positive for HR and/or HER2, and TNBC patients substantially differs as well. For patients who 
test positive for HR and/or HER2 with regional breast cancer, five-year survival is ~82-89%, but 65% for 
TNBC. Clearly, new technologies and approaches are required to target TNBC and provide these patients 
the same therapeutic opportunities that patients that test positive for HR or HER2 biomarkers have. 
 Here, we propose a fundamentally different approach to personalized medicine, which will 
dramatically change how we treat TNBC, particularly in lower income minority populations. We will 
evolve small proteins to selectively bind a patient’s breast cancer cells, irrespective of the specific changes 
to the cell surface that have occurred as a result of breast cancer. These proteins will be fused to other 
proteins that provide stability in the body, and recruit antibodies from the patient’s serum to TNBC cells, 
resulting in their targeted destruction. We will pair our TNBC-targeting immunotherapies (drugs that use 
the immune system to destroy TNBC cells) with a low-cost paper-based platform, which will allow simple, 
accessible, and routine assessment of our TNBC-targeting proteins, and allow clinicians to select which 
members should make up a combination therapy. The diagnostic platform will also allow clinicians to 
monitor the effectiveness of each member of the cocktail over the course of treatment (as cancer cells 
mutate), and select alte...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10707347
- **Project number:** 5U54MD015959-02
- **Recipient organization:** DELAWARE STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** M Shahidul Islam
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $370,300
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-20 → 2027-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10707347

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10707347, Integrating Low-Cost Paper-Based Devices and Personalized Immunotherapeutics to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer (5U54MD015959-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10707347. Licensed CC0.

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