About Genesis Research

Click on the links below to read about some of our current research projects:

GENESIS RESEARCH OVERVIEW 2011
ASIAN WOMENS' HEALTH AWARENESS
B AHEAD
SNPs
INTERMITTENT DIET
TAM-PREV STUDY
TOMMY TRIAL
PROCAS


The Genesis Breast Cancer Prevention Appeal is committed to funding research into breast cancer prevention strategies, as we believe that prevention is better than cure. Our ability to prevent breast cancer at present is limited, but through our research we aim to create a future without this terrible disease.

At present it is generally said that breast cancer occurs randomly. Take a group of 10 women, and breast cancer could affect any one of them. Recent research suggests that this is not true.

Breast cancer is caused by a combination of:

  • the genes you are born with

  • the environment in which you live

  • certain lifestyle factors


Although relatively few women carry one of the strong cancer-predisposing genes such as BRCA1 or BRCA2, gene testing of women who have had breast cancer has identified that many carry gene fragments known as SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). It may be that ALL women who develop breast cancer do so because they carry at least one of those SNPs. Thus, by combining a gene test to search for high risk genes and for lower risk SNP’s, together with a study of lifestyle factors, and a study of bio-markers of risk such as mammographic breast density, it may be possible in the future to predict within a group of 10 women which of them are the 1 or 2 who are ‘destined’ to develop breast cancer in the future unless someone intervenes.

The first step is Prediction. The second step is Prevention.

Once we know who is at high risk of breast cancer, we can offer these women a number of strategies to reduce risk or even prevent the cancer. These strategies include regular screening (for which we require improved technologies over conventional mammography and MRI scanning); lowering of lifestyle risk by interventions that are acceptable and effective (dietary, exercise and hormone based interventions); and switching off genetic factors (through research into drugs such as PARP inhibitors, vaccines, or antibodies that interfere with biological pathways).

In many ways we are at a unique moment in history, as a result of 21st century genetic technology advances which have opened the door to understanding how breast cancer might be predicted and prevented.

The next pieces in the jigsaw to solve are the exact role of SNPs, their relationship to bio-markers of risk, the quantification of their level of risk, and their interactions with one another and with other genes. We believe that accurate methods of predicting risk could be achieved over a 5 year time frame. Then targeted screening and prevention on those ‘destined’ to develop breast cancer will require clinical trials over at least a 10 year time frame.

The ultimate goal of those trials is to achieve breast cancer prevention within a generation. Below is a list of projects Genesis funded medical professionals have undertaken or projects which Genesis have donated grants to.

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