Breast and ovarian cancer: a genetics research study
Last updated: 10/04/2012
What’s this project about?
Dr Paul Pharoah and his team at the University of Cambridge are studying how a person's genetic make-up can determine how breast and ovarian cancers develop and how they respond to treatment. He is also looking for new ways to distinguish between different types of breast cancer.
Around 130 women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer every day and 12,000 women a year die from the disease. This study will help to shape the future of breast cancer prevention and treatment and build upon existing ground-breaking research to date that means 8 out of 10 women now survive their disease for more than five years.
Supporting this project
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Mark donated
£18.75
Well done. 
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Brian donated
£75.00 -
Heather donated
£37.50
Little Miss Darcy has worke...
Little Miss Darcy has worked for us part time as a 'Meeter and Greeter' at our shop Field & Style in Stow on the Wold.She is sooooooooooo cute and happily sells our 'Doggie Style' range.Pink paws collar and lead set on the way so Miss Darcy can sparkle even more when she is out and about fundraising and mingling with the stars!......we are tickled pink to be supporting Darcy's fundraising - paw power!
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Graz donated
£25.00
Let your friends and family know about this project to get them involved
Share this projectProject update – December 2011
Dr Paul Pharoah has a special thank you for MyProjects supporters:
Our research would not be possible without the generous support of many people. My research team and I are very grateful to the supporters of MyProjects who help make our research happen.
Project update - March 2011
We spoke with Dr Reis e Sousa recently, and he's thrilled to see the great support of his work so far. He shared this message with you:
Thank you so much to all who have contributed to funding this project so far. We got off to a good start and have made some very good progress, but still have some way to go towards reaching our funding goal.
Your support enables us to investigate if immune cells called dendritic cells can help direct our bodies’ natural defences to fight cancer. Please spread the word amongst your friends and with your help we will be able to turn basic science discoveries into new medicines!
What’s the science behind this project?
Dr Pharoah and his team are looking at samples from around 7,000 women with breast cancer in East Anglia. They will compare the genetic make-up of the women with breast cancer compared to those without the disease and look at how gene differences affect the way people respond to cancer treatments. Knowing which gene changes influence how successful treatments are likely to be will help doctors to tailor treatments to their patients in the future, according to the gene variations of their individual cancers. This is bringing us to a new era of ‘personalised medicine’ – and offers people with cancer the best chance of beating their disease.
There are lots of different types of breast cancer. Dr Pharoah also hopes to find some of the characteristics of tumour cells that could help doctors distinguish one type of breast cancer from another. He hopes to use this knowledge to understand how different breast cancers respond to treatment and how a woman's genetic make-up affects her risk of these different types of disease.
They hope that by combining these results, they will help doctors make the best decisions possible about the individual care of each woman with breast cancer.
The difference you can make
Although our work has been at the heart of progress to ensure more women now survive breast cancer than ever before, we want to help even more women beat the disease. By helping us fund work like Dr Pharoah’s, you can help doctors find new ways to match the most appropriate treatments to their patients, ensuring the best chance of successful treatment.
Donate now and you can help support: Breast and ovarian cancer: a genetics research study
