Alejandro Contreras, MD, PhD
Department of Anatomical Pathology, Division of Pathology-Lab Medicine Div
About Dr. Contreras
I am a Board-certified Pathologist with a specialization in Breast Pathology. I was an Assistant Professor at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in the Department of Pathology and Immunology and the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center from 07/2010 until 07/2014. In addition to my clinical duties at BCM, I was co-director of the Pathology Core Laboratory and member of the Faculty Committee on Awards and the MD/PhD Faculty Operating Committee. Currently, I am an Associate Professor at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Pathology since 08/2014. My research interests include the simultaneous multispectral imaging of biomarkers in breast cancers.
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Present Title & Affiliation
Primary Appointment
Professor, Department of Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Dual/Joint/Adjunct Appointment
Professor, Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
Education & Training
Degree-Granting Education
| 2006 | Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, MD, Medicine |
| 2004 | Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA, PHD, Molecular and Cellular Biology |
| 1995 | Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, AB, Biochemical Sciences |
Postgraduate Training
| 2009-2010 | Clinical Fellowship, Surgical/Breast Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX |
| 2006-2009 | Residency, Anatomic Pathology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL |
Board Certifications
| 2010 | Anatomic Pathology, American Board of Pathology |
Experience & Service
Academic Appointments
Associate Professor, Department of Translational Molecular Pathology, Division of Pathology/Lab Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2014 - 2018
Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Immunology, Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 2010 - 2014
Administrative Appointments/Responsibilities
Divisional Patient Safety and Quality Officer, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2020 - Present
Departmental Patient Safety and Quality Officer, Department of Pathology, Department of Pathology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 2015 - 2020
Other Appointments/Responsibilities
Member, Baylor College of Medicine-MD/PhD Faculty Operating Committee, Houston, TX, 2012 - 2014
Member, Baylor College of Medicine-Faculty Committee on Awards, Houston, TX, 2012 - 2014
Member, Baylor College of Medicine-Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, Houston, TX, 2010 - 2014
Co-director, Baylor College of Medicine-Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center Pathology Core Laboratory, Houston, TX, 2010 - 2014
Institutional Committee Activities
Member, Physician Advisory Board, 2020 - Present
Member, Image-Guided Cancer Therapy (IGCT) Research Program, 2019 - Present
Member, Program Evaluation Committee-Breast Pathology Fellowship, 2015 - Present
Member, Clinical Competency Committee-Breast Pathology Fellowship, 2015 - Present
Member, Faculty Academic Review Committee, 2015 - Present
Honors & Awards
| 2015 | Shirley Stein Scientific Endowed Research Award, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
| 2005 | School of Biomedical Sciences Graduation Commencement Speaker, School of Biomedical Sciences |
| 2005 | Outstanding Graduate Student Award, Baylor Alumni Association |
| 2005 | Keystone Travel Award |
| 2005 | Minority Training Research Forum National Abstract Winner, Minority Training Research Forum |
| 2003 | Minority Training Research Forum National Abstract Winner, Minority Training Research Forum |
| 2003 | Deborah K. Martin Award for Outstanding Graduate Student, Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Baylor College of Medicine |
| 2003 | Scholar-in-Training Award, American Association for Cancer Research |
| 2000 | Anthony R. Means Award for Academic Excellence, Dept. of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Baylor College of Medicine |
Professional Memberships
Selected Publications
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- Mazumdar A, Tahaney WM, Hill JL, Zhang Y, Ramachandran S, Kawedia J, Qian J, Contreras A, Savage MI, Vornik LA, Sei S, Mohammed A, Brown PH. Targeting the mTOR Pathway for the Prevention of ER-negative Breast Cancer. Cancer Prev Res (Phila) 15(12):791-802, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35981902.
- Kumar T, Hobbs E, Yang F, Chang JT, Contreras A, Cuentas ERP, Garber H, Lee S, Lu Y, Scoggins ME, Adrada BE, Whitman GJ, Arun BK, Mittendorf EA, Litton JK. Tumor immune microenvironment changes by multiplex immunofluorescence staining in a pilot study of neoadjuvant talazoparib for early-stage breast cancer patients with a hereditary BRCA mutation. Clin Cancer Res 28(17):3669-3676, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35736816.
- Goodbrake C, Li DS, Aghakhani H, Contreras A, Reece GP, Markey MK, Sacks MS. On the Three-Dimensional Mechanical Behavior of Human Breast Tissue. Ann Biomed Eng 50(5):601-613, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35316441.
- Liu X, Ge Z, Yang F, Contreras A, Lee S, White JB, Lu Y, Labrie M, Arun BK, Moulder SL, Mills GB, Piwnica-Worms H, Litton JK, Chang JT. Identification of biomarkers of response to preoperative talazoparib monotherapy in treatment naïve gBRCA+ breast cancers. NPJ Breast Cancer 8(1):64, 2022. e-Pub 2022. PMID: 35538088.
- Sen A, Fowlkes NW, Kingsley CV, Kulp AM, Huynh T, Willis BJ, Brewer Savannah KJ, Bordes MCA, Hwang KP, McCulloch MM, Stafford RJ, Contreras A, Reece G, Brock KK. Histological validation of anatomical imaging for breast modeling using a novel cryo-microtome. Med Phys. e-Pub 2021. PMID: 34559413.
- Soundararajan R, Fradette JJ, Konen JM, Moulder S, Zhang X, Gibbons DL, Varadarajan N, Wistuba II, Tripathy D, Bernatchez C, Byers LA, Chang JT, Contreras A, Lim B, Parra ER, Roarty EB, Wang J, Yang F, Barton M, Rosen JM, Mani SA. Targeting the Interplay between Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal-Transition and the Immune System for Effective Immunotherapy. Cancers (Basel) 11(5), 2019. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 31137625.
- Veeraraghavan J, De Angelis C, Mao R, Wang T, Herrera S, Pavlick AC, Contreras A, Nuciforo P, Mayer IA, Forero A, Nanda R, Goetz MP, Chang JC, Wolff AC, Krop IE, Fuqua SAW, Prat A, Hilsenbeck SG, Weigelt B, Reis-Filho JS, Gutierrez C, Osborne CK, Rimawi MF, Schiff R. A combinatorial biomarker predicts pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant lapatinib and trastuzumab without chemotherapy in patients with HER2+ breast cancer. Ann Oncol. e-Pub 2019. PMID: 30903140.
- Rimawi MF, De Angelis C, Contreras A, Pareja F, Geyer FC, Burke KA, Herrera S, Wang T, Mayer IA, Forero A, Nanda R, Goetz MP, Chang JC, Krop IE, Wolff AC, Pavlick AC, Fuqua SAW, Gutierrez C, Hilsenbeck SG, Li MM, Weigelt B, Reis-Filho JS, Kent Osborne C, Schiff R. Low PTEN levels and PIK3CA mutations predict resistance to neoadjuvant lapatinib and trastuzumab without chemotherapy in patients with HER2 over-expressing breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 167(3):731-740, 2018. e-Pub 2017. PMID: 29110152.
- Middleton LP, Phipps R, Routbort M, Prieto V, Medeiros LJ, Riben M, Contreras A, Kelley J, Patel K, Bingham J, Wagar EA. Fifteen-Year Journey to High Reliability in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Am J Med Qual:1062860618759198. e-Pub 2018. PMID: 29512395.
- Gilcrease MZ, Dogan BE, Black DM, Contreras A, Dryden MJ, Jimenez SM. Transection of Radioactive Seeds in Breast Specimens. Am J Surg Pathol 40(10):1375-9, 2016. PMID: 27627744.
- Giuliano M, Hu H, Wang YC, Fu X, Nardone A, Herrera S, Mao S, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Wang T, Hilsenbeck SG, De Angelis C, Wang NJ, Heiser LM, Gray JW, Lopez-Tarruella S, Pavlick AC, Trivedi MV, Chamness GC, Chang JC, Osborne CK, Rimawi MF, Schiff R. Upregulation of ER signaling as an adaptive mechanism of cell survival in HER2-positive breast tumors treated with anti-HER2 therapy. Clin Cancer Res 21(17):3995-4003, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 26015514.
- Burstein MD, Tsimelzon A, Poage GM, Covington KR, Contreras A, Fuqua SA, Savage MI, Osborne CK, Hilsenbeck SG, Chang JC, Mills GB, Lau CC, Brown PH. Comprehensive Genomic Analysis Identifies Novel Subtypes and Targets of Triple-negative Breast Cancer. Clin Cancer Res 21(7):1688-98, 2015. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25208879.
- Giuliano M, Herrera S, Christiny P, Shaw C, Creighton CJ, Mitchell T, Bhat R, Zhang X, Mao S, Dobrolecki LE, Al-rawi A, Chen F, Veneziani BM, Zhang XH, Hilsenbeck SG, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Jeselsohn RM, Rimawi MF, Osborne CK, Lewis MT, Schiff R, Trivedi MV. Circulating and disseminated tumor cells from breast cancer patient-derived xenograft-bearing mice as a novel model to study metastasis. Breast Cancer Res 17(1):3, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25572662.
- Niravath P, Eble T, Contreras A, Li M, Franco LM, Rimawi M. Breast adenocarcinoma recurring as small cell carcinoma in a patient with a germline BRCA2 mutation: clonal evolution unchecked. Exp Hematol Oncol 4(1):1, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25671134.
- Suo J, Medina D, Herrera S, Zheng ZY, Jin L, Chamness GC, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Hilsenbeck S, Umar A, Foekens JA, Hanash S, Schiff R, Zhang XH, Chang EC. Int6 reduction activates stromal fibroblasts to enhance transforming activity in breast epithelial cells. Cell Biosci 5:10, 2015. e-Pub 2015. PMID: 25774287.
- Fu X, Creighton CJ, Biswal NC, Kumar V, Shea M, Herrera S, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Wang T, Nanda S, Giuliano M, Morrison G, Nardone A, Karlin KL, Westbrook TF, Heiser LM, Anur P, Spellman P, Guichard SM, Smith PD, Davies BR, Klinowska T, Lee AV, Mills GB, Rimawi MF, Hilsenbeck SG, Gray JW, Joshi A, Osborne C, Schiff R. Overcoming endocrine resistance due to reduced PTEN levels in estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer by co-targeting mammalian target of rapamycin, protein kinase B, or mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase. Breast Cancer Res 16(5):430. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25212826.
- Tretiakova MS, Bond SD, Wheeler D, Contreras A, Kocherginsky M, Kroll TG, Hale TK. Heterochromatin protein 1 expression is reduced in human thyroid malignancy. Lab Invest 94(7):788-95, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24840329.
- Hatcher RJ, Dong J, Liu S, Bian G, Contreras A, Wang T, Hilsenbeck SG, Li Y, Zhang P. Pttg1/securin is required for the branching morphogenesis of the mammary gland and suppresses mammary tumorigenesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111(3):1008-13, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 24395789.
- Veeraraghavan J, Tan Y, Cao XX, Kim JA, Wang X, Chamness GC, Maiti SN, Cooper LJ, Edwards DP, Contreras A, Hilsenbeck SG, Chang EC, Schiff R, Wang XS. Recurrent ESR1-CCDC170 rearrangements in an aggressive subset of oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancers. Nat Commun 5:4577, 2014. e-Pub 2014. PMID: 25099679.
- Mohammed S, Statz A, Lacross JS, Lassinger BK, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Bonefas E, Liscum KR, Silberfein EJ. Granulomatous mastitis: a 10 year experience from a large inner city county hospital. J Surg Res 184(1):299-303, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23890401.
- Zhang X, Claerhout S, Prat A, Dobrolecki LE, Petrovic I, Lai Q, Landis MD, Wiechmann L, Schiff R, Giuliano M, Wong H, Fuqua SW, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Huang J, Mao S, Pavlick AC, Froehlich AM, Wu MF, Tsimelzon A, Hilsenbeck SG, Chen ES, Zuloaga P, Shaw CA, Rimawi MF, Perou CM, Mills GB, Chang JC, Lewis MT. A renewable tissue resource of phenotypically stable, biologically and ethnically diverse, patient-derived human breast cancer xenograft models. Cancer Res 73(15):4885-97, 2013. e-Pub 2013. PMID: 23737486.
- Gould DJ, Salmans JA, Lassinger BK, Contreras A, Gutierrez C, Bonefas E, Liscum KR, Silberfein EJ. Factors associated with phyllodes tumor of the breast after core needle biopsy identifies fibroepithelial neoplasm. J Surg Res 178(1):299-303, 2012. e-Pub 2012. PMID: 22524977.
- Bardhan R, Chen W, Bartels M, Perez-Torres C, Botero MF, McAninch RW, Contreras A, Schiff R, Pautler RG, Halas NJ, Joshi A. Tracking of multimodal therapeutic nanocomplexes targeting breast cancer in vivo. Nano Lett 10(12):4920-8, 2010. e-Pub 2010. PMID: 21090693.
- Atkinson RL, Zhang M, Diagaradjane P, Peddibhotla S, Contreras A, Hilsenbeck SG, Woodward WA, Krishnan S, Chang JC, Rosen JM. Thermal enhancement with optically activated gold nanoshells sensitizes breast cancer stem cells to radiation therapy. Sci Transl Med 2(55):55ra79, 2010. PMID: 20980696.
- Contreras A, Sattar H. Lobular neoplasia of the breast: an update. Arch Pathol Lab Med 133(7):1116-20, 2009. PMID: 19642738.
- Cella N, Contreras A, Latha K, Rosen JM, Zhang M. Maspin is physically associated with [beta]1 integrin regulating cell adhesion in mammary epithelial cells. FASEB J 20(9):1510-2, 2006. e-Pub 2006. PMID: 16720730.
- Hale TK, Contreras A, Morrison AJ, Herrera RE. Phosphorylation of the linker histone H1 by CDK regulates its binding to HP1alpha. Mol Cell 22(5):693-9, 2006. PMID: 16762841.
- Ginger MR, Shore AN, Contreras A, Rijnkels M, Miller J, Gonzalez-Rimbau MF, Rosen JM. A noncoding RNA is a potential marker of cell fate during mammary gland development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103(15):5781-6, 2006. e-Pub 2006. PMID: 16574773.
- Grimm SL, Contreras A, Barcellos-Hoff MH, Rosen JM. Cell cycle defects contribute to a block in hormone-induced mammary gland proliferation in CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBPbeta)-null mice. J Biol Chem 280(43):36301-9, 2005. e-Pub 2005. PMID: 16120603.
- Contreras A, Hale TK, Stenoien DL, Rosen JM, Mancini MA, Herrera RE. The dynamic mobility of histone H1 is regulated by cyclin/CDK phosphorylation. Mol Cell Biol 23(23):8626-36, 2003. PMID: 14612406.
- Medina D, Kittrell FS, Shepard A, Contreras A, Rosen JM, Lydon J. Hormone dependence in premalignant mammary progression. Cancer Res 63(5):1067-72, 2003. PMID: 12615724.
- Welm BE, Freeman KW, Chen M, Contreras A, Spencer DM, Rosen JM. Inducible dimerization of FGFR1: development of a mouse model to analyze progressive transformation of the mammary gland. J Cell Biol 157(4):703-14, 2002. e-Pub 2002. PMID: 12011115.
- Chakravarty G, Roy D, Gonzales M, Gay J, Contreras A, Rosen JM. P190-B, a Rho-GTPase-activating protein, is differentially expressed in terminal end buds and breast cancer. Cell Growth Differ 11(7):343-54, 2000. PMID: 10939588.
Grant & Contract Support
| Title: | SPORE - Translational research in breast cancer: Pathology core |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| Title: | Using genomics and proteomics to develop effective therapies for ER-negative breast cancer |
| Funding Source: | Komen for the Cure |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| Title: | Continuing umbrella research experiences |
| Funding Source: | NCI |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| Title: | Dual imaging of HER2 by immunofluorescence and mRNA in situ hybridization in invasive breast carcinomas |
| Funding Source: | M.D. Anderson Cancer Center |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | The Role of Progesterone Receptor in Early Stage Breast Cancer |
| Funding Source: | Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| Title: | Clinical Research |
| Funding Source: | Shirley Stein Scientific Endowed Research Award |
| Role: | Principal Investigator |
| Title: | A Phase 2 Study of DS-8201a (NSC#807708, IND#153036) in Adolescents, or Young Adults with Recurrent HER2+ Osteosarcoma |
| Funding Source: | NIH/NCI |
| Role: | Collaborator |
| Title: | Contrast enhanced spectral mammography (CESM) and CESM-guided biopsies for early breast cancer detection at MDACC: a pilot phase |
| Funding Source: | GE Healthcare |
| Role: | Collaborator |
Patient Reviews
CV information above last modified August 19, 2024