Breakthrough Breast Cancer funds doctor to forward cutting-edge breast cancer research
A new research fellowship programme by the UK’s leading breast cancer charity, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, has awarded its first grant of over £900,000 to allow an oncologist to establish a laboratory to undertake vital research into HER2 positive 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 through Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Clinical Researcher Programme which aims to bridge the gap between basic science and the patient – a two-way ‘bench to bedside’ approach that will deliver real benefit to patients.
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. Dr Kong will use a state-of-the-art microscopy technique called FRET with the aim of validating this as a new prognostic tool to predict whether a patient is likely to benefit from Herceptin as well as identify patients who are likely to relapse. He aims to use this technique to classify breast cancers on the activation and dimerisation state of HER2 receptors and relate this to gene expression profiles. By doing so he believes this will be useful in selecting patients who are not considered to have HER2 positive breast cancer under current tests and yet may still benefit from Herceptin. Furthermore, this method may also be useful in the future to predict whether patients would benefit from other targeted treatments that may become available.
Dr Anthony Kong will establish his research laboratory at the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine under the supervision of Professor Adrian Harris, Director of the Molecular Oncology Laboratories at the Institute. Alongside this research project, Dr Kong will continue his clinical commitments alongside Dr Bernadette Lavery, Professor Adrian Harris and other oncologists within the Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust.
Dr Kong says: "I am delighted to receive funding for my research from Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s Clinical Researcher Programme. This funding will not only enable me to investigate ways to treat patients more effectively, but will also help me translate my findings into direct benefits for patients more quickly, which I feel is absolutely essential. By taking this approach, my research will help to make a real difference to women with breast cancer and their families."
Dr Anthony Kong’s studies will complement work already taking place at the internationally renowned Breakthrough Toby Robins Breast Cancer Research Centre housed in the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green building at The Institute of Cancer Research in London.
Breakthrough Breast Cancer needs to raise at least £25 million each year for the next three years to support its vital research, campaigning and education work. For more information about the charity, please visit www.breakthrough.org.uk.
