Hollie Swanson works with STEMCats project, "Drug Interactions in Breast Cancer"

"Drug Interactions in Breast Cancer" project has the potential to help scientists understand why the drug tamoxifen may not work as a therapy for breast cancer in some patients. Hollie Swanson, professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences, and Ok-Kyong Park-Sarge, associate professor in the Department of Physiology, worked with 10 STEMCats students on the project. The group focused on the question, "If breast cancer patients taking tamoxifen are also taking drugs to treat epilepsy or heart failure, would those drugs interfere with tamoxifen and inhibit their breast cancer treatment?" In addition to addressing a real-world issue through research, it was also a learning experience for students on what goes into a research project and how a lab works. "I think it is important for the students to understand how scientists ask questions and how scientists' work improves our ability to treat diseases like cancer," Swanson said. http://uknow.uky.edu/content/stemcats-end-spring-semester-strong-research