Molly Klein

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Credentials

MD

Bio

Dr. Klein is an anatomic pathologist with research interests in breast and gynecologic diseases and the application of technology to disease diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Klein and her colleagues conducted a study of Oncotype DX, a widely-used commercial assay for making chemotherapy decisions in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancers, to compare the combined prognostic / predictive power of standard histology and immunohistochemical markers with Oncotype DX assay. Using equations they developed, they found a strong correlation between standard pathology results and the Oncotype DX assay score. They suggested that in some if not many cases standard pathology markers plus the use of pathology-generated equations derived by linear regression analysis constitute an accurate and cost-effective substitute for the commercial assay. Klein and fellow investigators have also explored quality assurance issues concerning the Oncotype DX assay, specifically the false negatives associated with the assay's detection of HER2 (ERBB2), an important prognostic and predictive marker in breast carcinoma.

Research Summary

Publications

• Khalifa MA, Gagner B, Chen L, Murugan P, Klein ME, Racila E, Amin K, Miller F, Stewart J, Ding Y, Farooqui M, Dasaraju S, and Adeyi OA.  Immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence utilization audit by subspecialty in an academic setting: A step toward stewardship.  Annals of Diagnostic Pathology, Volume 67, 2023, 152214, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2023.152214.
• Erickson BE, Najjar O, Damast S, Blakaj A, Tymon-Rosario J, Shahi M, Santin A, Klein M, Dolan M, Cimino-Mathews A, Buza N, Ferriss JS, Stone RL, Khalifa M, and Fader AN. Human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2) in early stage uterine serous carcinoma: A multi-institutional cohort study. Gynecologic Oncology, 2020; 159 (1): 17-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygyno.2020.07.016.
• Lou E, Vogel RI, Hoostal S, Klein M, Linden MA, Teoh D, Geller MA. Tumor-stroma proportion as a predictive biomarker of resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with ovarian cancer. JAMA Oncol. 2019 Jun 1. doi: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2019.1943.
• Fitzpatrick M, Pulver T, Klein M, Murugan P, Khalifa M, Amin K. Perivascular Epithelioid Cell Tumor of the Uterus with Ovarian Involvement: A Case Report and Review of the Literature. Am J Case Rep. 2016 May 6; 17:309-14.