More than 180,000 lives could be lost by 2030 unless urgent action is taken to fill critical gaps in breast cancer research, a report has warned.
Research facilitated by charity Breast Cancer Campaign and published in the international open access journal Breast Cancer Research identified 10 areas where work is most needed.
Among the gaps identified by the report is the need for a better understanding of how the disease can be prevented through diet and lifestyle, as well as further research into how genetic changes lead to cancer. ‘Biobanking’, or collecting tissue samples, could also help researchers understand what happens when cancer begins to spread.
Coinciding with the start of breast cancer awareness month, the ‘Gap Analysis’ review puts forward what is needed to prevent, cure and outlive breast cancer by 2050. The research was co-authored by Professor Sue Eccles from the Institute of Cancer Research and Professor Alastair Thompson from the University of Dundee.
This research is a unique collaboration of over 100 internationally recognised scientists, clinicians and healthcare professionals, including BRC-supported Dr Rob Stein, consultant at UCLH specialising in the medical treatment of breast cancer.
Professor Eccles said: “We’ve known for some time that breast cancer is not just one disease but our understanding has increased enormously in the five years since the first Gap Analysis in 2008. We now know that breast cancer cells can have different characteristics, even within the same tumour, and these can also change over time. This makes it much more complex to research and is why we need greater collaboration between multi-disciplinary teams and an improved infrastructure, to ensure we are getting the data and tissue samples needed to advance our research knowledge.”
Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Campaign, which commissioned the report, said: "If we don't act now, by 2030 more than 1.2 million women could be living with or after a breast cancer diagnosis and around 185,000 lives could have been lost to (the disease).
"We want future mothers, daughters and wives to have their breast cancer prevented, cured or for them to outlive the disease, and hope that together we can achieve this by 2050".
The Gap Analysis article can be accessed on Breast Cancer Research’s website.
