Breast cancer projects funded by the MDC
The Mavis Robertson Fellowship
The co-founder of Women in Super, Mavis Robertson has been recognised by NBCF with the establishment of the Mavis Robertson Fellowship to recognize the achievements of a female cancer researcher in the early stage of her career. This prestigious Fellowship was awarded for the first time in December 2011 to Dr Juliet French of the University of Queensland. Her research focuses on identifying and characterising novel changes in a person’s DNA that are associated with an increased risk of developing breast cancer. Juliet says “It is such an honour to receive this Fellowship so that I can continue to investigate the causes of breast cancer and to ultimately improve the lives of everyone affected by this terrible disease”.
Dr French hopes that understanding how these variations in the DNA sequence function and how they contribute to breast cancer will provide new avenues for therapy.
A new tool for intra-operative tumour margin assessment
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ROBERT MCLAUGHLIN - WA
Successful breast cancer surgery relies on accurately identifying and removing all cancerous tissue. However, despite state of the art methods of detecting breast cancer prior to surgery, such as MRI and ultrasound, up to one third of patients undergoing breast conserving surgery have insufficient cancerous tissue removed, increasing the need for additional, follow-up surgery. With his NBCF-Novel Concept Award, Associate Professor Robert McLaughlin and his team are working on a new technology that will allow surgeons to more accurately assess tumour margins during surgery, substantially reducing the need for further surgery and the risk of recurrence for the patient.
The new technology is called ‘optical coherence elastography’ which uses infra-red imaging on a tiny scale – so tiny it fits in the end of a needle. When inserted near the breast tumour, the needle detects how the tissue moves, and senses the difference in ‘stiffness’ between healthy and cancerous tissue.
“For the first time, surgeons will be able to detect tiny traces of cancer during surgery, before they cut it out. It has the potential to make surgery safer and reduce the risk of missing anything” says Associate Professor McLaughlin.
Breast Tomosynthesis: improving the detection of breast cancer
PROFESSOR PATRICK BRENNAN - NSW
Mammography is the primary diagnostic tool for detecting breast cancer, with over 500,000 women screened every year in Australia. Mammogram screening programs have greatly contributed to increased survival rates for women with breast cancer, due to early detection. Despite these achievements, mammography could still be improved, especially for young women for whom the sensitivity of mammography is lower due to the high density of young breast tissue.
Professor Patrick Brennan of the University of Sydney is acutely aware of this problem and is using an NBCF Novel Concept Award to develop a more sensitive screening tool to more accurately detect breast cancer in the whole population. This novel imaging tool is called digital breast tomosynthesis
(DBT) which images ‘slices’ of breast tissue sequentially so that accurate three dimensional pictures of the breast can be re-constructed using advanced computer technology. Professor Brennan will be working closely with leading radiology clinicians to analyse and compare the efficacy of this new technology with existing screening methods by mammography.
Huge potential exists for the use of this tool in younger women for whom there is no current accurate method of screening due to the high density of the young breast. Dr Brennan hopes that introducing DBT as a screening tool for breast cancer will greatly improve the accuracy of breast cancer detection and lead to improved early detection rate and overall patient survival.
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