Last year, there were an estimated 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer for women in the U.S., and 43,250 women died from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society.

An Upstate Medical University research team is continuing groundbreaking breast cancer medical research that hopes to change breast cancer treatments as Breast Cancer Awareness Month continues.

Upstate Medical has published discoveries that are leading to awards for more grant funding to potentially find a cure to stop breast cancer from spreading, according to Dr. Leszek Kotula, an associate director for the Cancer Center at Upstate. He gives a lot of credit to the funding and faith behind his research as well, specifically from The Baldwin Fund — a nonprofit organization that provides funding for cancer research in Central New York.

The research team found there is a group of genes collaborating in the body that are responsible for the metastatic process. This discovery has led to the research team’s current work trying to optimize a drug for treatment.

“There’s a lot of work to be done on the bench before we can move to the clinic. So, it will probably take about three years for optimization. But we are very hopeful, and along the way we found other potential pathways for drug development. We chase. We’re gonna explore,” Kotula said.

Kotula can’t provide the exact point for when treatment will be ready for the public, though, because of the unknown timelines that trials and Food and Drug Administration approvals have.

Kotula said there is a lot to come in the future from Upstate and their cancer research. Thanks to the leadership at Upstate, there have been structural changes, potentially leading to famous researchers soon working with the team, he said.