My Breakthrough
HRH The Prince of Wales opens our Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit, Edinburgh
HRH The Prince of Wales opens our Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit, Edinburgh Scientists, supporters and Breakthrough staff were delighted to welcome Prince Charles, Breakthrough’s Patron, to open the new Breakthrough Research Unit at the University of Edinburgh on Thursday June 5. It is the first of our three new research units to be opened and is the first dedicated research unit for breast cancer in Scotland.
After arriving, Prince Charles first visited the laboratories, which are based above the breast clinic at the Western General Hospital, where he met the unit’s Director Professor David Harrison, Clinical Director, Mr Mike Dixon, and several other Breakthrough scientists who will be working there. They discussed the importance of their work and its potential to help women with breast cancer across the UK.
Research at the Breakthrough Research Unit in Edinburgh will focus on improving treatment for hormone-sensitive breast cancer, the most common form of the disease. Scientists will use cutting-edge technologies to study the differences between breast cancers that respond well to hormone therapy and those that do not. Ultimately, this research should allow doctors to predict early on during treatment whether individual patients will benefit from hormone therapy, enabling them to select the most appropriate treatment for that individual. 
The scientists will also investigate why some cancers become resistant to hormone therapy, with the aim of developing new treatments that can avoid or overcome this problem. This work is vitally important as treatment resistance is a common problem, affecting thousands of women each year.
The Prince of Wales remarked: "My problem always on these occasions is there's never enough time to be able to ask all the incredibly stupid questions I want to ask about the incredibly complex things the researchers are studying. But I was particularly interested in terms of the way that this unit here is complementing what is going on in London with Breakthrough's Research Centre there, which I remember opening some years ago."
Professor David Harrison said: "We were delighted to welcome His Royal Highness to the opening of the Breakthrough Research Unit, Edinburgh. This facility marks a significant step forward for breast cancer research in Scotland. And by bringing together some of the best scientific and clinical minds in the country, we will be able to improve treatment available for women and ensure patients are able to reap the benefits of our work as quickly as possible.”
After touring the laboratories, Prince Charles met several of Breakthrough’s Scottish CAN members and fundraisers, all of whom were enthusiastic about the opening of the new unit. One of them, Alison Walker, from Edinburgh, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. She said, "I’m really pleased that Breakthrough Breast Cancer is opening this new research unit at the hospital where I received my treatment for the disease. With so much still to be done to discover its causes, develop new treatments and make sure everyone affected by cancer has the best possible care, it’s really important that scientists in the lab and doctors in the hospital work together closely so patients can benefit from new advances as quickly as possible.”
His Royal Highness then unveiled a new plaque commemorating the opening of the Breakthrough Research Unit, Edinburgh. He said: "This particular research unit clearly is going to make an enormous difference in terms of removing unnecessary treatment, and making a real difference at the end of the day to so many patients who have to go through treatment, many of whom, as you know, suffer from side effects in one way or another.
I do know that this particular research will lead to something really of benefit to certain patients."
The Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Unit, Edinburgh is kindly supported by our long-term friends at the Miss Agnes H Hunter's Trust, which is also based in Edinburgh. The unit is the first of three new Breakthrough Research Units to open at locations across the UK, with the other two planned for London and Manchester. These units will build on the success of the Breakthrough Research Centre in London, forming a UK-wide network of Breakthrough scientists. They will work together to improve the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of breast cancer.
