Charity awards £900,000 to vital breast cancer research

A £900,000 grant to allow an oncologist to establish a laboratory to undertake vital research into HER2-positive breast cancer has been awarded by charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer.

Dr Anthony Kong, who helps treat breast cancer patients within the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust, is the first clinician scientist to be funded via the charity’s clinical researcher programme.

HER2-positive breast cancer accounts for around 1 in 5 of the 46,000 breast cancers diagnosed in the UK each year.

Herceptin is a key treatment for this type of the disease but not all patients benefit from this drug.

Although doctors can confirm that a cancer is HER2-positive using immunohistochemistry or a technique called FISH, there is currently no reliable test to predict whether Herceptin will be effective for every patient.

neil.durham@haymarket.com

Breakthrough Breast Cancer

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