The monthly Komen Breast Cancer Research Forum will be held on the 3^rd Wednesday of each month from 9-10am. The Forum is organized by Drs. Heather McArthur, Ariella Hanker, and Qing Zhang to help facilitate information exchange among basic, translational, and clinical investigators with a focus in breast cancer as well as foster interactions between clinicians and scientists. One main objective of this forum is to jointly learn what the institutional assets in breast cancer are so we can make decisions on what we are capable in terms of multi-investigator research grants, clinical trials, mentoring, outreach, and program building. This will also inform recruitment needs and areas of investment geared towards establishing and growing a Translational Research Breast Cancer Program based at the Simmons Cancer Center.

Komen Breast Cancer Forum - Dr. Adrienne Boire, M.D., Ph.D., FAAN

Wednesday, July 15, 2026

           "Innate Immunity Fuels Leptomeningeal Metastasis” 

Speaker: Dr. Adrienne Boire, M.D., Ph.D., FAAN

Associate Attending, Department of Neurology

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Location: NB5.124 Seminar Room  (In-person preferred) and ZOOM

About Dr. Adrienne Boire: 

Dr. Boire is a neuro-oncologist who cares for patients with metastasis to the central nervous system. She has a special interest in leptomeningeal metastasis and leads a laboratory-based team conducting basic research to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for this condition.

In collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of neurosurgeons, radiation oncologists, scientists, nurses, and research staff, she leads clinical trials that aim to translate laboratory research into novel therapies for patients with metastasis to the nervous system.

The Boire laboratory investigates the leptomeningeal space. The leptomeninges, layers of membranous coverings, encase the central nervous system and contain the circulating cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). In health, the leptomeninges maintain neural homeostasis and provide a route of biochemical communication between the periphery and the central nervous system. In disease, the leptomeningeal space plays host to a variety of pathologies, including autoimmunity, infectious disease, and malignancy.

Cancer cells may spread nearly anywhere in the body. When they enter into and grow within the leptomeningeal space, leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) results. This complication of cancer wreaks havoc with the homeostatic capacities of the CSF leading to neurological disabilities and death. We seek to understand neuroanatomically where and mechanistically how cancer cells become competent to enter into the leptomeninges. Once within the leptomeninges, cancer cells face profound metabolic challenges including low extracellular iron, hypoxia, and low extracellular lipid. The lab investigates how cancer cells overcome these metabolic constraints so that they may interrupt this signaling and arrest cancer cell growth in the space.

Although classically viewed as a barrier system, a more modern view of the leptomeninges is that of a conduit for biochemical and cellular communication between the systemic circulation and the central nervous system. Immune cells, their mediators, as well as signaling molecules generated from extra-CNS tissues are all detectable within the CSF. The lab investigates this signaling with the goal of understanding and ultimately interrupting neuro-pathological processes at the whole-organism level. This includes metastasis, autoimmunity, and infection.