Titles

  • Surgical Oncologist, Department of Surgery, CHUM
  • Scotiabank Chair in Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment, Université de Montréal
  • Administrative Director of the Clinical Breast Cancer Research Team (GRCS), CHUM
  • Associate Professor, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
  • Research member, Montreal Cancer Institute and Research Center of CHUM (CRCHUM)

Research Themes

  • Translational Research – laboratory based
    • Triple-negative breast cancer
    • PARP inhibitors, identification of predictive biomarkers and new combination therapies
    • Inhibiting the development of metastasis
    • Using AI to improve diagnosis and prognosis of breast cancer
  • Clinical Research
    • In affiliation with cooperative groups such as NRG Oncology, NSABP, and McPeak Sirois Group of Quebec, and industry-sponsored trials
    • Phase II and III trials in neoadjuvant, adjuvant and metastatic settings
    • Investigator-initiated studies

Recent Grants

  • Canadian Cancer Society and Hecht Foundation, “Early detection of high-risk and breast cancer in young women”, February 2025
  • Cancer Research Society, “Unraveling the impact of the sequential combination of PARP inhibition and carboplatin on distant metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer”, September 2024
  • Breast Cancer Canada Precision Oncology grant, “Dissecting tumor and microenvironment influences in PARPi response in BRCA-mutant and BRCA-wild type breast cancer patients”, July 2024
  • Rethink Breast Cancer – Pfizer, “Improving genetic testing with a perspective of racial disparities in metastatic breast cancer patients in Quebec”, May 2024
  • Government of Canada, New Frontiers Research Fund, Exploration: “Leveraging liquid biopsies to improve detection of primary and recurrent breast cancer”, March 2024
  • NanoString GeoMX Oncology grant: spatial biology application for whole transcriptome analysis in triple-negative breast cancer, May 2023
  • Breast Cancer Canada Precision Oncology grant, “Disentangling the genomic and immune landscape to predict response to PARP inhibition and immunotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer”, May 2023

Recent Publications

  1. Schmid P, Cortes J, Dent R, McArthur H, Pusztai L, Kummel S, Denkert C. Park YH, Hui R, Harbeck N, Takahashi M, Im S-A, Untch M, Fasching PA, Mouret-Reynier M-A, Foukakis T, Ferreira M, Cardoso F, Zhou X, Karantza V, Tryfonidis K, Aktan, F, O’Shaugnessy J, KEYNOTE-522 Investigators. Overall Survival with Pembrolizumab in Early-Stage Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2024 Nov 2024 Nov 28;391(21):1981-1991. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2409932.
  2. Frederick M, Fyle E, Clouvel A, Abdesselam D, Hassan S. 2024 Oct 3. Targeting FEN1 to enhance efficacy of PARP inhibition in triple-negative breast cancer. bioRxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.10.01.616136
  3. Frederick MI, Abdesselam D, Clouvel A, Croteau L, Hassan S. Leveraging PARP-1/2 to target distant metastasis.  International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2024 Aug 20. https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/25/16/9032.
  4. Hassan S, Gray JW, Heiser LM. Systems Biology and Genomics, Book Chapter In: Holland-Frei Cancer Medicine, 10th Edition (RC Bast Jr, JC Byrd, CC Croce, E Hawk, FR Khuri, RE Pollock, A-M Tsimberidou, CG Willett, CL Willman, eds.) John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, N.J., April 2023. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Holland+Frei+Cancer+Medicine%2C+10th+Edition-p-9781119750703#author-section.
  5. Beniey M, Hubert A, Haque T, Cotte A, Bechir N, Zhang X, Tran-Thanh D, Hassan S. Sequential targeting of PARP with carboplatin inhibits primary tumor growth and distant metastasis in triple-negative breast cancer. Br J Cancer. 2023 Mar 20 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41416-023-02226-w
  6. Hassan S, Younan R, Patocskai E, Provencher L, Poirier B, Sideris L, Dubé P, Mihalcioiu C, Chabot-Blanchet M, Guertin M-C, Boileau J-F, Robidoux A. Impact of the 21-Gene Breast Recurrence Score on Treatment Decisions and Cost in Patients with Node-Positive breast cancer: a Multicenter study in Quebec. Oncologist. 2022 Oct 1 : 13:oyac123. doi: 10.1093/oncolo/oyac123
  7. Yordanova M, Hassan S. The role of the 21-gene Recurrence Score in hormone-receptor positive, node-positive breast cancer: the Canadian experience.  Current Oncology 2022, 29(3), 2008-2020; https://doi.org/10.3390/curroncol29030163
  8. Schmid P, Cortes J, Dent R, et al. and KEYNOTE-522 Investigators. Event-Free survival with Pembrolizumab in Early Triple-Negative Breast Cancer. NEJM 2022 Feb 10;386(6):556-567. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2112651
  9. Yordanova M, Hubert A, Hassan S. Expanding the use of PARP inhibitors as monotherapy and in combination in triple-negative breast cancer. Pharmaceuticals 2021 Dec 6;14(12):1270. doi: 10.3390/ph14121270.

Complete list of publications can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1ZMvOR5JrMBk2/bibliography/public/

Media Communications

1. CBC Daybreak with Sean Henry, March 2024

2. The Montreal Gazette, October 2024

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/breast-cancer-deaths-down-by-50-but-a-disturbing-rise-in-diagnoses-among-young-people

3. La Presse, November 2024

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/sante/pourquoi-tant-de-cancers-chez-les-quarantenaires/2024-11-10/il-y-a-des-choses-qu-on-ne-comprend-pas.php

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/sante/pourquoi-tant-de-cancers-chez-les-quarantenaires/2024-11-10/les-annees-cheetos-et-sangria.php

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/sante/2024-11-10/cancer/devrait-on-abaisser-l-age-du-depistage.php

4. Radio-Canada Téléjournal, February 2025

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/videos/1-10290093/hausse-cas-cancer-chez-jeunes