Diana Marquez-Garban, MD

Dr. Diana Marquez-Garban's research is focused on estrogen and growth factor receptor interactions and downstream signaling in breast and lung cancer cell in vitro and in vivo models. She led pioneering work on rapid effects of estrogens in breast cancer cells and unanticipated actions in non-small cell lung cancer. She participated actively in understanding the role estrogen receptors and aromatase play in lung cancer. This work has resulted in two completed clinical trials testing anti-hormonal therapy for treatment of advanced lung cancer.

More recent work has been testing anticancer properties of novel repurposed drug-liked compounds in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors to treat triple negative breast cancer. Marquez-Garban is also part of an NIH-supported project between Charles Drew University and JCCC to Eliminate Cancer Health Disparities in Minority Underserved Populations in Los Angeles. She is interested in understanding these differences in order to design better strategies to provide better health care to cancer patients.

Marquez-Garban DC, Gorrin-Rivas M, Chen HW, Sterling C Jr, Elashoff D, Hamilton N, Pietras RJ. Squalamine blocks tumor-associated angiogenesis and growth of human breast cancer cells with or without HER-2/neu overexpression. Cancer Lett. 2019 May 1;449:66-75. doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2019.02.009. Epub 2019 Feb 13.

Marquez-Garban DC, Deng G, Comin-Anduix B, Garcia AJ, Xing Y, Chen HW, Cheung-Lau G, Hamilton N, Jung ME, Pietras RJ. Antiestrogens in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors in breast cancer immunotherapy. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2019 Oct;193:105415. doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2019.105415. Epub 2019 Jun 19.

Boonyaratanakornkit V, Hamilton N, Maquez-Garban DC, Pateetin P, McGowan EM, Pietras RJ. Extranuclear signaling by sex steroid receptors and clinical implications in breast cancer. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2018 May 5;466:51-72. doi: 10.1016/j.mce.2017.11.010. Epub 2017 Nov 14.

Pietras RJ, Marquez-Garban DC. Membrane-associated estrogen receptor signaling pathways in human cancers. Clin Cancer Res. 2007 Aug 15;13(16):4672-6. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-07-1373.