Some of the most aggressive breast cancers disproportionately affect younger women, yet there are few options to treat them in those known to be high risk. A team of researchers across Canada is working to change that by uncovering how these cancers first begin—from inherited genetic mutations or changes that can occur after pregnancy—with the goal of intercepting and preventing these hard-to-treat cancers before they start.
With $9 million in renewal funding from a Terry Fox New Frontiers Program Project Grant (PPG), the multidisciplinary team will investigate the earliest biological changes that lead to these aggressive breast cancers to pinpoint what drives the disease, develop precision prevention strategies, and improve outcomes for women at high risk.
“We have brought together a team of researchers and clinicians with the complementary expertise needed to uncover the earliest changes that lead to breast cancer. Using these discoveries, we aim to create new ways of intercepting these abnormal processes early and initiate clinical trials focused on preventing breast cancer before it develops,” says Dr. Rama Khokha, senior scientist at the UHN’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and professor at University of Toronto.
Dr. Khokha co-leads the project with Dr. Christopher Maxwell, professor at the University of British Columbia and investigator at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute.
The renewed funding builds on years of discovery that has advanced into clinical trials currently underway. With previous Terry Fox funding, they identified key biological pathways involved in breast cancer development, established a unique collection of tissue samples from more than 170 women with and without high-risk genes, and expanded the team’s expertise to meet the needs identified in the first PPG.
Over the next six years, they aim to reveal the molecular changes that occur at the very beginnings of breast cancer, using advanced molecular technologies, machine learning, and the patient samples gathered in the first project. By collaborating with researchers nationally and internationally, the team hopes to translate these discoveries into new prevention approaches and ultimately enable multisite, multinational clinical trials that can intervene before high-grade cancers develop.
Together, their discoveries will help fill critical gaps in understanding how aggressive breast cancers develop and lay the foundation for new prevention strategies, bringing new hope and transforming care for women at high risk.
“Cancer research is a team effort that extends far beyond the experts in research hospitals. It includes patient partners to ensure research is relevant and impactful, and community supporters who make it happen,” says Dr. Maxwell. “Terry Fox donors provide the essential resources needed to advance transformative research in Canada and move cancer care from treatment to prevention.”
