The Health Research Council of New Zealand (HRC) is pleased to announce funding for two innovative research projects that share the goal of improving and ultimately ensuring breast cancer survival in New Zealand.
These projects have been funded through the Breast Cancer Research in New Zealand initiative, which is now in its second year of funding and is a joint partnership between Breast Cancer Cure (BCC), The New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation (NZBCF), and the HRC.
New Zealand has one of the highest rates of breast cancer in the world. Breast cancer is New Zealand’s third most common cancer and is the most common cancer for women, affecting one in nine New Zealand women over their lifetime and accounts for more than 600 deaths every year.
Identification of cancer-causing mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2, has well-defined and actionable implications for disease prevention. However, routine diagnostic BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene screening is expensive and up to 90 per cent of these genetic tests do not return a positive result suggesting that the current selection criteria for genetic testing are inefficient. Furthermore, about 15 per cent of these tests identify a DNA sequence variant that is of unknown clinical significance creating a significant challenge for counselling and clinical decision making.
Dr Logan Walker at the University of Otago is leading a team that will aim to exploit a powerful new mRNA in situ hybridisation technology to develop an innovative method for prioritising patients for mutation screening and evaluating genomic sequencing results. This study has the potential to identify tumours from both familial and sporadic forms of breast cancer that may respond to drugs targeting altered BRCA1/2 genes and related pathways.
Every year, more than 2000 New Zealand women are diagnosed with oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Most of these women are treated with therapies that target production or action of the hormone oestrogen; however, some patients obtain little to no benefit from this treatment and their cancer returns. It has previously been shown that women with high levels of inflammatory immune cells within their tumours have poorer responses to anti-oestrogen therapy. Also, the common anti-inflammatory drug aspirin has been shown to be associated with improved breast cancer outcomes in patients taking aspirin for other reasons.
Dr Anita Dunbier at the University of Otago will lead a team that will investigate whether the addition of aspirin to anti-oestrogen therapy will improve response to anti-oestrogen therapy. They plan to examine the molecular changes that occur during treatment with aspirin and anti-oestrogen therapy. This analysis will indicate whether aspirin is likely to help patients in the long term and define biomarkers to identify which patients will benefit most.
The following successful applicants includes the named principal investigator only.
Dr Logan Walker
University of Otago
Identifying breast cancer patients with clinically relevant mutations
24 months, $196,659
Dr Anita Dunbier
University of Otago
Understanding the role of aspirin in breast cancer treatment
24 months, $199,604