ORLANDO, Fla. — One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and some of them will develop a type of tumor that becomes resistant to treatment.

Here’s what researchers at the University of Central Florida are doing to find a better treatment plan:

1. What are researchers developing?

UCF Cancer Researcher Dr. Jihe Zhao is developing a new breast cancer therapy using a nanoparticle synthesized by another UCF professor.

2. Why are they developing this treatment?

Researchers are combining that cerium oxide nanoparticle with the main drug used to fight a type of breast cancer known as HER2-positive. Dr. Zhao says they’re taking this approach because a quarter to a third of women with that cancer eventually become resistant to the drug alone.

3. Are there other treatments to address resistance?

Despite the advancement in breast cancer therapies, there is currently no effective treatment for drug-resistant tumor relapses, according to Dr. Zhao.

4. Where's the research at now?

The nanoparticle created by UCF has already been used in another pre-clinical trial and effectively killed pancreatic cancer cells, according to Dr. Zhao.

5. Who's funding the research?

Dr. Zhao’s breast cancer research is being funded by a $100,000 grant from the Florida Breast Cancer Research Foundation. He hopes his research will lead to clinical trials in the future.