Triple Negative Breast Cancer Conference 2011

Held over three days at the Royal Society in London, it highlighted novel laboratory approaches, innovative pre-clinical science and the latest clinical trial results. The aim was to discuss and advance our understanding of the causes diagnosis and treatment of this challenging disease.

Triple negative breast cancer affects one in six women with breast cancer in the UK – around 8,000 patients each year. Around 15–20% of breast cancers do not have hormone receptors or HER2 receptors. These are termed triple-negative. They tend to be more aggressive than other forms of breast cancer. They can also be difficult to treat because, lacking receptors, the tumours do not respond to targeted therapies such as Herceptin (trastuzumab) or hormone treatments such as tamoxifen.

The conference programme has been designed by committee chaired by Professor Alan Ashworth, Chief Executive of The Institute of Cancer Research and former Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre.

Also on the programme committee is Professor Jorge Reis-Filho, team leader at the Breakthrough Research Centre, Dr Andrew Tutt, Director of the Breakthrough Research Unit at King’s College London, and Dr Rebecca Dent, from the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, Canada.

Dr Andrew Tutt, Director of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit at King’s College London, says:

“While some patients with triple negative breast cancer do well with current treatments including chemotherapy, for others it doesn't work nearly as well. These patients need our urgent attention. We are likely to need to develop several different treatments for these types of breast cancer and by getting the best people together in one room we hope to speed up our progress towards improved survival rates.

This conference can really help set the agenda for our research over the next few years as we work towards a future free from the fear of breast cancer.”