At Breakthrough we’re looking for ways to prevent secondary breast cancer and improve treatments. A big challenge with secondary breast cancer is treatment resistance – something our scientists are working particularly hard to combat.
What is secondary breast cancer?
Secondary breast cancer occurs when cancer cells from an original tumour spread to another part of the body, then grow and multiply and form a new tumour. Though incurable, secondary breast cancer can often be controlled for long periods of time.
What is Breakthrough doing about it?
Professor Clare Isacke at Breakthrough's Research Centre has found that a molecule called Endo180 encourages breast cancer cells to move. She is now looking to see if Endo180 can be used as a target for new treatments to prevent breast cancer from spreading, thus improving the chances of successful treatment.
Breakthrough’s Professor Mitch Dowsett has researched a potential method for predicting which patients may be at risk of their breast cancer returning and spreading. This information could help doctors give the most appropriate care and treatment to individual patients in the future.
Many women with secondary breast cancer receive hormone treatments such as tamoxifen to slow down the progress of the disease. The cancer can, however, become resistant to tamoxifen, making the drug ineffective. Many of our scientists are trying to combat this problem. They are using a range of approaches and technologies to do this.
Dr Don White is leading an investigation at the Breakthrough Research Centre into why breast cancer sometimes returns, even many years after treatment, and spreads to other parts of the body.
