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  • Maja H. Oktay, M.D., Ph.D.

Maja H. Oktay, M.D., Ph.D.

Maja H. Oktay

Professor, Department of Pathology

Professor, Department of Anatomy & Structural Biology

Area of Research: Tumor progression and metastasis; The effect of chemotherapy on tumor microenvironment; Racial disparity in cancer.

Contact Information

718.920.4269718.515.5315moktay@montefiore.org

Montefiore Medical Center
111 East 210th Street
Hofheimer Main, Room 409
Bronx, NY 10467

Research ProfilesPubMed Portal

More Resources: Unraveling the Mysteries of MetastasisNew York Pathology Oncology Group web page

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Professional Interests

Maja Oktay, MD/PhD, is a physician-scientist. She is board-certified anatomical pathologist and cytopathologist with a Ph.D. and post-doctoral training in cancer cell biology and cell signaling pathways. Her major interests are in cancer cell biology, the biology of breast cancer progression and metastasis, the effect of chemotherapy on tumor microenvironment, racial disparity in cancer, as well as development of prognostic and predictive molecular biomarkers. Her work is based on the analysis of the cancer microenvironment using mouse models of cancer, intravital multiphoton imaging and digital pathology as well as minimally invasive procedures for diagnosis and prognosis of human malignancies, such as fine-needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy.

Dr. Oktay is a translational (bench to bedside) researcher in Einstein’s Integrated Imaging Program where basic science findings are applied to clinical care through the integration and validation of high-resolution optical imaging with currently used clinical imaging methods.

Dr. Oktay established New York Pathology Oncology Group (NYPOG) and is the current director of NYPOG (https://einsteinmed.org/research/groups/ny-pathology-oncology/).

Most Recent Contribution to Science:

Maja Oktay studies breast cancer microenvironments responsible for metastasis. In particular, the function of breast cancer intravasation sites called TMEM (Tumor MicroEnvironment of Metastasis) and its interactions with pro-metastatic Mena-expressing tumor cells and cancer stem cells. Using fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy obtained breast cancer cells from patients she determined that invasive cancer cells (MenaINV expressing) and cancer cells expressing stem cell markers correlate with TMEM score breast cancers from patients indicating mechanistic involvement of MenaINV, and stemness in TMEM function in human breast cancer. In addition, using FNA obtained cancer cells from patients for functional in vitro trans-endothelial migration studies she demonstrated that TMEM sites and MenaINV expression in cancer cells are essential for cancer cell trans-endothelial migration in all clinical subtypes of breast cancer. She also participated in the prospective validation study which demonstrated that TMEM score is a predictive marker of metastasis in breast cancer patients, as well as in the study which demonstrated that TMEM sites are functional sites of transient blood vessel permeability and as such the only sites of breast cancer cell intravasation. In addition, she led a study that established that commonly used chemotherapy for breast cancer can induce TMEM and MenaINV mediated pro-metastatic changes in breast cancer in the neoadjuvant setting and demonstrated that these changes can be reversed by Tie2 inhibition. 

Selected Publications

- Sharma VP, Tang B, Wang Y, Karagiannis GS, Xue EA, Entenberg D, Borriello L, Coste A, Duran CL, Eddy RJ, Kim G, Ye X, Jones JG, Grunblatt E, Agi N, Roy S, Bandyopadhyaya G, Adler E, Surve CR, Esposito D, Goswami S, Guo W, Condeelis JS, Wakefield LM, Oktay MH. Live imaging of breast tumors shows macrophage-dependent induction and TMEM-mediated enrichment of cancer stem cells during metastatic dissemination. bioRxiv2020.09.18.303388;doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.09.18.303388

- Borriello L, Karagiannis GS, Duran CL, Coste A, Oktay MH, Entenberg D, Condeelis JS. The role of the tumor microenvironment in tumor cell intravasation and dissemination. Eur J Cell Biol. 2020 Aug;99(6):151098. doi: 10.1016/j.ejcb.2020.151098. Epub 2020 Jul 2. PubMed PMID: 32800278; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7431678.

- Kim G, Pastoriza JM, Condeelis JS, Sparano JA, Filippou PS, Karagiannis GS, Oktay MH. The Contribution of Race to Breast Tumor Microenvironment Composition and Disease Progression. Front Oncol. 2020;10:1022. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2020.01022. eCollection 2020. Review. PubMed PMID: 32714862; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7344193.

- Christin JR, Wang C, Chung CY, Liu Y, Dravis C, Tang W, Oktay MH, Wahl GM, Guo W. Stem Cell Determinant SOX9 Promotes Lineage Plasticity and Progression in Basal-like Breast Cancer. Cell Rep. 2020 Jun 9;31(10):107742. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.107742. PubMed PMID: 32521267; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7658810.

- Coste A, Oktay MH, Condeelis JS, Entenberg D. Intravital Imaging Techniques for Biomedical and Clinical Research. Cytometry A. 2020 May;97(5):448-457. doi: 10.1002/cyto.a.23963. Epub 2019 Dec 30. Review. PubMed PMID: 31889408; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7210060.

- Entenberg D, Oktay MH, D'Alfonso T, Ginter PS, Robinson BD, Xue X, Rohan TE, Sparano JA, Jones JG, Condeelis JS. Validation of an Automated Quantitative Digital Pathology Approach for Scoring TMEM, a Prognostic Biomarker for Metastasis. Cancers (Basel). 2020 Mar 31;12(4). doi: 10.3390/cancers12040846. PubMed PMID: 32244564; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7226227.

- Ginter PS, Karagiannis GS, Entenberg D, Lin Y, Condeelis J, Jones JG, Oktay MH. Tumor Microenvironment of Metastasis (TMEM) Doorways Are Restricted to the Blood Vessel Endothelium in Both Primary Breast Cancers and Their Lymph Node Metastases. Cancers (Basel). 2019 Oct 8;11(10). doi: 10.3390/cancers11101507. PubMed PMID: 31597373; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6827388.

- Karagiannis GS, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH. Chemotherapy-Induced Metastasis: Molecular Mechanisms, Clinical Manifestations, Therapeutic Interventions. Cancer Res. 2019 Sep 15;79(18):4567-4576. doi: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-19-1147. Epub 2019 Aug 20. Review. PubMed PMID: 31431464; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6744993.

- Sanchez LR, Borriello L, Entenberg D, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH, Karagiannis GS. The emerging roles of macrophages in cancer metastasis and response to chemotherapy. J Leukoc Biol. 2019 Aug;106(2):259-274. doi: 10.1002/JLB.MR0218-056RR. Epub 2019 Feb 5. Review. PubMed PMID: 30720887; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6779158.

- Karagiannis GS, Pastoriza JM, Borriello L, Jafari R, Coste A, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH, Entenberg D. Assessing Tumor Microenvironment of Metastasis Doorway-Mediated Vascular Permeability Associated with Cancer Cell Dissemination using Intravital Imaging and Fixed Tissue Analysis. J Vis Exp. 2019 Jun 26;(148). doi: 10.3791/59633. PubMed PMID: 31305525; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6784529.

- Pastoriza JM, Karagiannis GS, Lin J, Lanjewar S, Entenberg D, Condeelis JS, Sparano JA, Xue X, Rohan TE, Oktay MH. Black race and distant recurrence after neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer. Clin Exp Metastasis. 2018 Oct;35(7):613-623. doi: 10.1007/s10585-018-9932-8. Epub 2018 Aug 22. PubMed PMID: 30136072; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6202136.

- Karagiannis GS, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH. Chemotherapy-induced metastasis: mechanisms and translational opportunities. Clin Exp Metastasis. 2018 Apr;35(4):269-284. doi: 10.1007/s10585-017-9870-x. Epub 2018 Jan 6. Review. PubMed PMID: 29307118; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6035114.

- Entenberg D, Voiculescu S, Guo P, Borriello L, Wang Y, Karagiannis GS, Jones J, Baccay F, Oktay MH, Condeelis J. A permanent window for the murine lung enables high-resolution imaging of cancer metastasis. Nat Methods. 2018 Jan;15(1):73-80. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.4511. Epub 2017 Nov 27. PubMed PMID: 29176592; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5755704.

- Sparano JA, Gray R, Oktay MH, Entenberg D, Rohan T, Xue X, Donovan M, Peterson M, Shuber A, Hamilton DA, D'Alfonso T, Goldstein LJ, Gertler F, Davidson NE, Condeelis J, Jones J. A metastasis biomarker (MetaSite Breast™ Score) is associated with distant recurrence in hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative early-stage breast cancer. NPJ Breast Cancer. 2017;3:42. doi: 10.1038/s41523-017-0043-5. eCollection 2017. PubMed PMID: 29138761; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5678158.

- Harney AS, Karagiannis GS, Pignatelli J, Smith BD, Kadioglu E, Wise SC, Hood MM, Kaufman MD, Leary CB, Lu WP, Al-Ani G, Chen X, Entenberg D, Oktay MH, Wang Y, Chun L, De Palma M, Jones JG, Flynn DL, Condeelis JS. The Selective Tie2 Inhibitor Rebastinib Blocks Recruitment and Function of Tie2Hi Macrophages in Breast Cancer and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors. Mol Cancer Ther. 2017 Nov;16(11):2486-2501. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-17-0241. Epub 2017 Aug 24. PubMed PMID: 28838996; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5669998.

- Karagiannis GS, Pastoriza JM, Wang Y, Harney AS, Entenberg D, Pignatelli J, Sharma VP, Xue EA, Cheng E, D'Alfonso TM, Jones JG, Anampa J, Rohan TE, Sparano JA, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy induces breast cancer metastasis through a TMEM-mediated mechanism. Sci Transl Med. 2017 Jul 5;9(397). doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aan0026. PubMed PMID: 28679654; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5592784.

- Pignatelli J, Bravo-Cordero JJ, Roh-Johnson M, Gandhi SJ, Wang Y, Chen X, Eddy RJ, Xue A, Singer RH, Hodgson L, Oktay MH, Condeelis JS. Macrophage-dependent tumor cell transendothelial migration is mediated by Notch1/MenaINV-initiated invadopodium formation. Sci Rep. 2016 Nov 30;6:37874. doi: 10.1038/srep37874. PubMed PMID: 27901093; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5129016.

- Harney AS, Arwert EN, Entenberg D, Wang Y, Guo P, Qian BZ, Oktay MH, Pollard JW, Jones JG, Condeelis JS. Real-Time Imaging Reveals Local, Transient Vascular Permeability, and Tumor Cell Intravasation Stimulated by TIE2hi Macrophage-Derived VEGFA. Cancer Discov. 2015 Sep;5(9):932-43. doi: 10.1158/2159-8290.CD-15-0012. Epub 2015 Aug 12. PubMed PMID: 26269515; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4560669.

- Oktay MH, Jones JG. TMEM: a novel breast cancer dissemination marker for the assessment of metastatic risk. Biomark Med. 2015;9(2):81-4. doi: 10.2217/bmm.14.104. PubMed PMID: 25689896.

- Pignatelli J, Goswami S, Jones JG, Rohan TE, Pieri E, Chen X, Adler E, Cox D, Maleki S, Bresnick A, Gertler FB, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH. Invasive breast carcinoma cells from patients exhibit MenaINV- and macrophage-dependent transendothelial migration. Sci Signal. 2014 Nov 25;7(353):ra112. doi: 10.1126/scisignal.2005329. PubMed PMID: 25429076; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4266931.

- Rohan TE, Xue X, Lin HM, D'Alfonso TM, Ginter PS, Oktay MH, Robinson BD, Ginsberg M, Gertler FB, Glass AG, Sparano JA, Condeelis JS, Jones JG. Tumor microenvironment of metastasis and risk of distant metastasis of breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2014 Aug;106(8). doi: 10.1093/jnci/dju136. Print 2014 Aug. PubMed PMID: 24895374; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4133559.

- Oktay MH, Gertler FB, Liu YF, Rohan TE, Condeelis JS, Jones JG. Correlated immunohistochemical and cytological assays for the prediction of hematogenous dissemination of breast cancer. J Histochem Cytochem. 2012 Mar;60(3):168-73. doi: 10.1369/0022155411435153. Epub 2012 Jan 3. Review. PubMed PMID: 22215635; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3351127.

- Roussos ET, Goswami S, Balsamo M, Wang Y, Stobezki R, Adler E, Robinson BD, Jones JG, Gertler FB, Condeelis JS, Oktay MH. Mena invasive (Mena(INV)) and Mena11a isoforms play distinct roles in breast cancer cell cohesion and association with TMEM. Clin Exp Metastasis. 2011 Aug;28(6):515-27. doi: 10.1007/s10585-011-9388-6. Epub 2011 Apr 12. PubMed PMID: 21484349; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3459587.

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In the News

More Media Coverage

  • Mechanisms of Resistance to Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy in Breast Cancer

    New England Journal of Medicine - December 21, 2017

    An editorial highlights research by Drs. Maja Oktay, George Karagiannis, and John Condeelis on the mechanism by which some breast cancer tumor cells resist chemotherapy and go on to metastasize. Dr. Oktay is professor of pathology; Dr. Condeelis is the Judith & Burton P. Resnick Chair in Translational Research and professor and co-chair of anatomy and structural biology; Dr. Karagiannis is a postdoctoral fellow

  • Study Uncovers Previously Unrecognized Effect of Chemotherapy

    NIH - August 15, 2017

    NCI’s Cancer Currents blog interviews Dr. Maja Oktay about her recent research that found a previously unrecognized effect of chemotherapy.

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