58 OF AUSTRALIA’S BEST RESEARCHERS FUNDED TO IMPROVE THE PREVENTION, EARLY DETECTION, TREATMENT AND QUALITY OF LIFE OF BREAST CANCER

Today the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF) awarded a total of $11 million in funding across 20 cancer research projects in the continuous battle against the disease. This funding will support 73 Australian researchers – from established leaders in breast cancer research to some of our brightest up-and-coming stars from all over the country.

Professor Sarah Hosking, CEO of NBCF stated, “This is the most exciting year yet. We are delighted that we can award $11 million to such diverse research studies and support outstanding Australian research talent. This is a solid step towards our future ambitions.”

As a completely community funded organisation, NBCF’s dedication to breast cancer research relies purely on Australian donations.  This year, those donations will assist research projects extending across prevention and early detection right through to targeted treatments for metastatic breast cancer.

NBCF is Australia’s leading community-funded organisation raising money exclusively for game-changing breast cancer research.

On average, eight people die from breast cancer every day¹, and it is the profound impact of this disease which inspires and drives the following researchers who will be funded this year:

• Professor Riccardo Dolcetti from the University of Queensland: $1 million funding towards developing new strategies to improve personalised immunotherapy of breast cancer.
• Dr Philip Gregory from the University of South Australia: $656 700 funding toward identifying new pathways to optimise treatments for triple negative breast cancer.
• Associate Professor Sarah-Jane Dawson from the University of Melbourne: $1.5m funding in developing a new blood test to improve detection and detect cancer relapse.
• Dr Andrew Burgess from the ANZAC Research Institute at the University of Sydney: $398,000 funding toward blocking the MASTL gene driving triple negative breast cancer
• Dr Clare Stirzaker from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research: $602,000 funding toward developing an epigenetic blood biomarker to enhance the clinical management of triple negative breast cancer.

NBCF Research Director Dr Chris Pettigrew commented that, “This is an incredibly inspirational group of researchers. They have demonstrated a combination of passion and diligence to their research projects. We’re really excited to see what the 2018 grants deliver.”

NBCF is a pioneer in raising money exclusively for Australian breast cancer research, making great strides since being founded in 1994. The cause has highlighted procedures that save women from invasive surgery, and advances in treatments and therapies such as tamoxifen and Herceptin to reduce the risk of recurrence. At their heart is an ambition to stop deaths from breast cancer and make it a better tomorrow for those affected. To meet this end, NBCF is working towards our vision of Zero Deaths from breast cancer.