JKTG Annual Symposium: Cancer as a Complex System

This annual JKTG Foundation Symposium is designed to explore current topics and cutting-edge research related to uncovering whole-body and tissue-level contributions to breast cancer, including state-of-the-art experimental approaches and novel computational methods.

This year tackles how breast cancers arise and progress via processes – specifically intrinsic dysregulation of epithelial cells and extrinsic reprogramming of the tissue ecosystems in which they live. Mounting evidence indicates that cancer involves systemic changes throughout the body, including to the circulatory, immune, hormonal, and nervous systems.

Together, these changes enable the ensemble of tumor cells to acquire key cancer hallmarks, including proliferation, migration, and immune evasion, and importantly to develop resistance mechanisms to therapeutic attacks. The resulting collection of multi-lineage tumor cell types comprises a complex system governed by the cellular and molecular characteristics of the diverse cells and by the physical and chemical signals between them.

Leading researchers and clinicians from Northwestern, Cedars-Sinai, Baylor, Johns Hopkins, Columbia, USC, Duke and Washington University will be part of the day's line-up with Julio Aguirre-Ghiso, PhD, from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, delivering the Jayne Koskinas Memorial Lecture.

Register now to secure your spot!

Host or Publisher JKTG Foundation for Health and Policy