Joyce M. Slingerland, MD, PhD
Director, Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute, UMSylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
Professor of Medicine
tel: 305-243-4909
fax: 305-243-4975
For Patients
Board Certifications
American Board of Internal Medicine
Practice Locations
University of Miami Hospital/Sylvester
Languages Spoken
English
Appointments
For an appointment, please call 305-243-1542 or use our online appointment form
Education
University of Toronto, Department of Medical Biophysics Toronto, Canada |
Ph.D. |
Biology |
1992 |
Princess Margaret Hospital, Division of Oncology Toronto, Canada |
Fellowship |
Medical Oncology |
1988 |
The Wellesley Hospital Toronto, Canada |
Chief Resident |
Interal Medicine |
1987 |
Princess Margaret Hospital Toronto, Canada |
Residency |
Medical Oncology |
1986 |
Toronto Hospital (General Division), Internal Medicine Toronto, Canada |
Resident II |
Internal Medicine |
1985 |
Toronto Hospital, (General Division), Internal Medicine Toronto, Canada |
Straight Internship |
Internal Medicine |
1984 |
University of Toronto Toronto, Canada |
M.D. |
Internal Medicine |
1983 |
College de Ste-Foy Quebec, Canada |
Diplome d’Etudes Collegiales |
|
1977 |
Joyce Slingerland, MD, FRCP(C), Ph.D., Director, Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMSCCC).
A native of Canada, Dr. Slingerland received her M.D. from the University of Toronto in 1983, followed by a Fellowship in Internal Medicine with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Canada. In 1987, she was certified by the American Board in Internal Medicine and in Medical Oncology by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. In August of 2002, Dr. Slingerland came to the University of Miami School of Medicine as the Director of the Braman Breast Cancer Institute, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center where she is working to expand and coordinate research efforts on breast cancer from many disciplines. Dr. Slingerland is also Professor of Medicine with a graduate appointment in the Department of Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology at the University of Miami, as well as a member of the senior leadership of the UMSCCC and Co-Program Leader of the UMSCCC's Molecular Oncology and Experimental Therapeutics Program. Dr. Slingerland continues her medical practice devoted entirely to breast cancer patients
at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Jackson Memorial Hospital. She has published over 50 articles and reviews in addition to
several book chapters and has received numerous awards. The Slingerland's lab has been funded by the Canadian NCI's Breast Cancer Research Initiative and by the DOD Breast Cancer Research Program and now the US NCI. Her research has provided insights on how cancers escape negative growth controls. Dr. Slingerland has made the innovative discovery of the cell cycle inhibitor, p27, and showed that p27 deregulation is prognostic of
poor patient outcome and leads to antiestrogen resistance in estrogen receptor positive breast cancers.
Clinical Specialties
Dr. Slingerland's clinical interests include: medical oncology of patients with breast cancer with an academic research interest in hormonal and molecular targeted therapies for breast cancer.
Research Interests
Dr. Slingerland's research interests include: breast cancer, molecular mechanisms of signal transduction and hormone effects on cell cycle regulation and breast cancer cell growth, breast cancer stem cells as targets for therapy and the role of estrogen receptors in breast cancer.
Dr. Slingerland's career in research has been devoted to translation of mechanistic aspects of cell cycle and hormonal regulation of breast cancer. The Slingerland lab investigates how breast cancer cells escape growth control by antiestrogens and inhibitory cytokines. During her post-doctoral work, Dr. Slingerland made the innovative discovery of a key inhibitor of cell cycle progression, p27. Her lab has investigated how p27 is regulated by hormones and mitogenic and growth inhibitory factors in normal and cancer cells. Slingerland et al. demonstrated that p27 levels are reduced in up to 60 % of common human breast and other cancers in association with poor patient prognosis. Dr. Slingerland showed that the growth arrest by inhibitory cytokines such as TGF-b and antiestrogens in breast cancer requires the cdk inhibitors p21 and p27. She showed that constitutive signaling via Her2. Src and MAPK activation deregulates p27 function causing Tamoxifen resistance in breast cancer. She and others demonstrated that a major mechanism of breast and other human cancer progression involves loss or inactivation of p27 through increased p27 degradation, its cytoplasmic mislocalization or sequestration in aberrant protein complexes. Ongoing research addresses how signaling via the phospho-inositol 3'kinase (PI3K) and Ras/Src/Raf/MAPK pathway modulates p27 phosphorylation and function. The consequences of pathway activation and specific effectors that modulate p27 phosphorylation and function are under investigation. An additional research focus in the Slingerland lab addresses how cross talk between liganded ER and receptor tyrosine kinases and Src signal transduction pathways may link transcriptional activity of the ER to its proteolytic degradation. Dr. Slingerland's research laboratory continues to investigate mechanisms regulating the cell cycle, antiestrogen resistance and estrogen receptor regulation in normal and malignant breast cells. Recently, she has initiated new clinical trials of molecular targeted therapies to reverse antiestrogen resistance.
Publications
List of publications by Joyce M. Slingerland, MD, PhD
Awards & Recognition
- University Scholar
McGill University
- 1924 War Service Scholarship
University of Toronto, Class of Medicine
- Post-MD Research Fellowship Award
Awarded by National Cancer Institute of Canada
- Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Award
Awarded by National Cancer Institute of Canada
- Early Career Development Award
Awarded by American Federation for Clinical Research Foundation
- Young Clinician-Research Award
Award of the Department of Medicine of Sunnybrook Health Science Centre
- Career Development Award
Awarded by US Army Breast Cancer Research Program
- Clinician Scientist Award
Burroughs Wellcome Clinician Scientist Award
- Canada Research Chair in Molecular Medicine
- Honorary Member
American Society for Clinical Investigation Membership
- Senior Clinician-Research Award
Award of the Department of Medicine of Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre