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Recently we introduced you to Associate Professor Wendy Ingman and her important research into the area of breast density. Thanks to your support, A/Prof Ingman is one step closer to breast cancer prevention after finding a new driver for breast density, which we now know is an identified risk for breast cancer. For the first time, A/Prof Ingman and her team have shown that chronic low-level inflammation drives increased breast density and is associated with a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.

This finding opens the door for new approaches to treating density and preventing breast cancer through reducing inflammation.

A/Prof Ingman, who is Lead Researcher of the Breast and Biology Unit at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research (BHI), recently published this finding in the international journal Breast Cancer Research.

“We induced a low level of chronic inflammation in our lab models and found it was a particular protein called CCL2 that caused the increase in inflammation. This led to an increase in the density in the tissue and also an increased risk of breast cancer,” A/Prof Ingman said.

“While it is already known that certain types of anti-inflammatories (such as aspirin) can reduce breast cancer risk, they are associated with longer term side effects and not recommended for women to help reduce their breast cancer risk."

Almost eight per cent of women have extremely high breast density and are more likely to develop breast cancer in the future.

“Our ultimate aim is to save women’s lives and our breast density research is helping us learn more about what drives this area of breast cancer risk to help inform preventative treatments.

“The more we can understand the risks associated with breast cancer, the greater chance we have at treating each risk and preventing breast cancer from developing in women."

You can feel proud knowing you’ve played a vital role in this breakthrough finding, and with your continued support A/Prof Ingman can get closer to preventing breast cancer and ultimately save lives.

Breast Density Research Edges Closer to Cancer Prevention

The next step is to conduct further studies into which treatments are best to dampen the inflammation, and to look at the relationship between density and inflammation within a large population of women.

With this research we believe we may be able to identify the women most at risk of inflammation-associated breast cancer through measuring their breast density and therefore identify those who will most benefit from anti-inflammatory treatment.

RESEARCH UPDATE

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Do you have a story like Vivien’s you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Contact us at contactus@abcr.com.au or 08 8445 2453

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The Impact of Breast Density- Vivien’s StoryWith your support, Associate Professor Wendy Ingman’s exciting breast density finding will prevent more women’s lives from being devastated by a breast cancer diagnosis. Women like mother and grandmother Vivien King who was unaware she had dense breasts until she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Having regular mammograms every two years since she was 40-years-old, it was only a few months after her last screening when Vivien found a lump in her breast.

“I had a mammogram in November of 2011 which came back negative, but then in February I was experiencing tenderness in my arm pit. I put it down to something else, until I felt down to my breast and found the lump,” Vivien

said.

“A couple of weeks later I had another mammogram, which led to an ultrasound and then a biopsy. I knew as soon as I went in for the biopsy that the news wasn’t

going to be good.

“They found two lumps and the cancer had spread to my lymph nodes.”

According to A/Prof Ingman, when a woman with dense breasts like Vivien presents for a mammogram, breast density is shown as white and bright regions and unfortunately potential tumours also appear the same colour. This means for Vivien, her cancer could have potentially been missed in the mammogram she had a couple of months beforehand.

The months following her breast cancer diagnosis were a whirlwind for Vivien who underwent a full breast mastectomy in April of 2012 where she also had twelve lymph nodes removed of which four were cancerous. Later that year she also had chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Now over five years on from her diagnosis, Vivien is breast cancer free, but she is all too aware other women are not as lucky. Having granddaughters and daughters of her own, Vivien is passionate about supporting A/Prof Wendy Ingman’s research and her fight to raise awareness and understanding of breast density in Australian women.

Vivien joins the eight percent of Australian women who are living with dense breasts and because of this have a higher risk of developing breast cancer. With your support, A/Prof Ingman can continue to lead the way in breast density research in the hopes of improving outcomes for women like Vivien in the future.

Vivien

I have three daughters and two granddaughters, so for their sake and the sake of all women we must be aware if we are more at

risk of developing breast cancer, and research can make this happen.

If I was diagnosed earlier my cancer may not have spread to my lymph nodes and I may have avoided some of the surgery and

treatments I went through. This is why more research into breast density is needed.

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Preventing Breast Cancer in Young WomenDid you know that women who begin their menstrual cycle at a younger age or hit menopause at an older age, are at a higher risk of developing breast cancer at some point in their life? Breast cancer researchers at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research (BHI) are working hard to understand what happens during a woman’s menstrual cycle to cause this risk, in order to prevent the disease from devastating more families in the future.

Joe Wrin is in the second year of his PhD at the BHI, investigating what changes occur in a woman’s breast during their menstrual cycle which may play a role in increasing their breast cancer risk.

“When a woman is undergoing their menstrual cycle, their breasts are essentially preparing themselves for pregnancy and so undergo many changes. When the cycle ends the breast then has to remodel back to what it was before. This process repeats every cycle a woman has,” Joe said.

“My project is investigating the role of particular white blood cells in the breast called macrophages that play an important role in returning the breast back to normal once a menstrual cycle has ended.

“The problem is when these macrophages appear in large numbers in the breast, they also release a particular protein that we have shown plays a significant role in promoting the growth of a breast cancer tumour and may also help it spread.

“My research is concerned with understanding how this process works and then finding a way to inhibit the action of

this protein and as such reduce the role it plays in promoting breast cancer.”

If successful, Joe is hopeful this pivotal finding could be used to not only improve the effectiveness of current breast cancer treatments but also prove useful in preventing a breast tumour from growing.

“Since we know this protein promotes the growth of a breast cancer tumour, if we could intervene early to block its activity, this would help reduce the growth of the tumour and hopefully allow other blood cells to be more effective in killing the tumour,” Joe said.

With the bulk of his research yet to come, Joe is hopeful his work will play a pivotal role in the fight against breast cancer. Your continued support of research like Joe's is vital to a future free of this heartbreaking disease, thank you.

The other application for my research is a treatment that healthy women could take that will help the breast remodel to its normal state during a menstrual cycle without the increased risk of cancer developing. This would hopefully decrease the incidence of breast cancer in premenopausal women.

Joe Wrin

Prevention

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Fighting Cancer with Your Own Immune SystemGroundbreaking research is underway boosting the body’s own immune system to fight the most common cancers affecting Australian families, including breast cancer. The treatment is known as immunotherapy, and whilst it’s currently revolutionising blood cancer treatment, when it comes to solid cancers like breast cancer it’s not known to be as effective.

Thanks to support from our generous donors, this is all about to change! In the first year of her PhD within the Breast Cancer Research Unit at the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research (BHI), Namfon (Bee) Pantarat is developing a new immunotherapy treatment to target solid cancers such as breast cancer.

“Researchers believe we are at the threshold of a golden era for a therapy called ‘adoptive T Cell therapy’, a type of immunotherapy that involves isolating and reinfusing cancer fighting cells called ‘T cells’ back into a patient’s body,” Bee said.

“A recent clinical trial in terminally ill blood cancer patients, who only had months to live, showed extraordinary results with more than half of these patients experiencing complete remission by using this T cell therapy.

“However when trying to target solid tumours, which kill more people than blood cancers, the T cells are not as effective. We found that when we inject T cells into the bloodstream, most of them don’t travel to the tumour site but randomly go to other places in the body.”

Utilising the world-class medical equipment at the BHI, made possible thanks to you, Bee is developing a new therapy that will deliver these cancer fighting cells directly to the tumour.

“You can’t just inject these T cells straight into the tumour because they won’t last long in that environment. We are putting them in a gel and putting them right where the tumour is, within this gel there is food for them to keep them alive, so over time the cells will slowly drift out to fight cancer.”

Whilst currently using breast cancer as a basis for her research, Bee is hopeful her work will provide a viable therapy for other solid tumour including prostate cancer and brain tumours.

“I hope to offer an effective, complementary treatment for cancer patients, particularly those with tumours that are difficult to remove through surgery."

We look forward to sharing the results of Bee’s lifesaving research closer to the end of her PhD!

Treatment

There is a lot of work to be done to ensure our therapy will not just extend patient’s lives by a month or two, but ideally cure their cancer all together. That’s the hope!

Namfon (Bee) Pantarat

Your support enables breast cancer research at the BHI to be world-class! Thank you!

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Dr Bill Panagopoulos is leading world-first research into an enzyme believed to play an essential role in the spread of breast cancer to the bone. Finishing his PhD, we’re excited to share with you the results of his research as he moves one step closer to a new treatment for secondary breast cancer.

“Through my PhD I discovered for the first time that a new group of enzymes, called peroxidases, contribute to the growth of a breast cancer tumour and also enhance the spread of cancer to other parts of the body,”

Armed with this extremely exciting finding, Dr Panagopoulos has returned to the Basil Hetzel Institute for Translational Health Research (BHI) as a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Breast Cancer Research Unit working with Professor Andreas Evdokiou.

“Continuing on from my PhD studies, now in collaboration with a pharmaceutical company, we’ve been able to find a way to inhibit this group of enzymes. We’re now assessing this inhibitor and its effectiveness in blocking peroxidase activity within the tumour and as a consequence, investigating if it reduces the spread of cancer and also breast tumour growth.

“If the inhibitor is effective, we’ll then be able to prove peroxidases involvement in the spread and growth of breast cancer, this means that this type of targeted therapy could be an effective strategy for treatment of breast cancer in the future.”

With high hopes for the next stage of his work, Dr Panagopoulos is confident a clinical trial of this therapy won’t be far off. Stay tuned, we'll keep you updated on this exciting research!

You're Helping Research Save Lives!

The next step would be using this targeted therapy in combination with current treatments to enhance its effectiveness in killing breast cancer!

You may remember meeting breast cancer survivor Trish and her daughter Danielle in a recent letter from us - thank you for your support! You’re helping us stop breast cancer from devastating any more Australian families like it did to Trish’s.

As a thank you for your invaluable support, we hope you’re enjoying your special Mother’s Day Recipe Book, inspired by the healthy herbs, seasoning and spices of our amazing partner G-Fresh! This book was made especially for you to enjoy with your loved ones.

You can download your online copy of the recipe book by visiting www.abcr.com.au.

“If I could say to Danielle ‘You will never get breast cancer’ that would mean the world to me.”

Bill Panagopoulos

Head Office: 60 Woodville Rd, Woodville SA 5011Ph: 08 8445 2453 contactus@abcr.com.au

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Faces of Fundraising!

When you host a fundraiser event for ABCR, 100 per cent of the funds you raise support researchers in the lab who are determined to improve treatments and ultimately prevent breast cancer from affecting more women. What you choose to do for

your event is entirely up to you, it can be as simple as a sausage sizzle or

participating in a local fun run!

We love meeting the many wonderful community fundraisers who give up their own time to raise vital funds for breast cancer research to do their bit to save lives! Here is just a small sample of some of our community fundraisers and their efforts!

Having watched his beautiful nana Kate Harkins win the fight against breast cancer, David Lloyd decided he too wanted to challenge himself and raise funds for research into the disease that takes the life of too many Australian women. In May David trekked the Kokoda trail for his beloved nana. Before embarking David had already raised over $2,300 for breast cancer research and we can't wait to share his final fundraising total with you very soon!

Ciara Mountcastle dedicated the entire year of 2016 to fundraising for ABCR in memory of her loving mother

who lost her battle with breast cancer

20 years ago. Kicking off the year with

a quiz night, Ciara also completed the

10km Sydney Sun Run, the Colour Run and held a big shave event where

she along with her partner, dad and son shaved their heads to raise funds

– this is just naming a few of her fundraising efforts! Ciara raised an incredible $5,053 for breast cancer research! The Valley Private Hospital Orthopaedic Ward in Victoria went pink for breast cancer research, raising over $500 for their efforts! Having some fun with their fundraiser, the team dressed up in different pink outfits including a pink monkey onesie and pink tutu, and asked their colleagues to donate their loose change to support ABCR.

If you’re interested in hosting your own

fundraiser for breast cancer research, you can

email us at contactus@abcr.com.au

or call (08) 8445 2453!