About Us
The Hebron Lab is dedicated to uncovering the mechanisms that drive sarcoma progression and metastasis, with the ultimate goal of developing more effective therapies for patients with advanced disease.
Our Mission
- Understand how sarcoma cells alter their cell state to evade therapy and adapt to different tumor microenvironments.
- Identify key mediators of sarcoma metastasis.
- Determine the impact of the local tumor microenvironment on sarcoma progression.
Long-Term Goals
- Advance our understanding of the biology underlying sarcoma metastasis.
- Identify targetable vulnerabilities in the pathways that regulate metastasis.
- Develop novel therapeutic strategies for animals and patients with advanced sarcoma.
- Build a robust preclinical framework for evaluating metastasis-targeting therapies.
Translational Impact Statement
Survival for patients with relapsed, refractory, and metastatic sarcoma has not improved in more than 40 years. And this is despite very aggressive multimodal therapies, including surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, which are all associated with significant on-treatment toxicities as well as life-long morbidities. Novel therapies are desperately needed to improve outcomes for patients with advanced disease and improve survivorship for sarcoma patients. This is especially important because sarcomas disproportionately affect children, accounting for >20% of childhood cancers, but <1% of adult cancers. Finally, this work also has the potential to improve companion animal care, with sarcomas accounting for around 15% of canine cancers.
