The overarching goals of research in the Sgroi laboratory are to develop better ways to identify patients who are at risk for the development of breast cancer and to identify those breast cancer patients who are likely to benefit from targeted drug therapies. We are taking several different approaches to achieving these goals. First, we are deciphering specific molecular events that occur during the earliest stages of tumor development and using this knowledge to develop biomarkers that will predict for increased risk of progression to cancer. Second, using DNA microarray technologies, we are searching for novel breast cancer biomarkers to identify patients with hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer who are most likely to benefit from extended hormonal therapy. Finally, we are taking a combined approach—based on analysis of tissue from breast cancer patients and various laboratory studies—to identifying biomarkers that will predict how individual breast cancer patients will respond to novel targeted therapeutics.