Breast Cancer Research Events
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The first Cambridge Precision Breast Cancer Symposium - bringing researchers together across Cambridge and the UK, with a particular focus on the CRUK Cancer Centres
- The first Breast Cancer Research Demystified event - bringing people with breast cancer and their family and friends together with the researchers, providing updates on studies that they too part in and what is happening with samples and data that we collect through clinical research.
The Cambridge Precision Breast Cancer Symposium 2024 will be the second research event of this type organised by the Cambridge Centre Breast Cancer Virtual Institute, led by Professors Jean Abraham and Jason Carroll. The symposium will cover the clinical and basic science aspects of several topics relevant to breast cancer, including cancer development and diagnosis, the cancer cell biology and the micro-environment, drug target discovery and technology. We will discuss the latest developments in laboratory and clinical research, challenges in clinical practice, unanswered questions and directions of future research in these fields. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cambridge-precision-breast-cancer-symposi...
The Precision Breast Cancer Institute / Cambridge Centre Breast Cancer Virtual Institute welcomed people who have, or have been treated for breast cancer, their relatives and friends to the first Breast Cancer Research Demystified event. Over 60 people made it through the stormy weather to the Old Divinity School at St John’s College, Cambridge on evening of the 2nd November.
The event was inspired by members of the Precision Breast Cancer Institute Patient Advisory Group, who wanted to know more about what happens with the data and samples we collect for research, and the impact of the research on current and future NHS treatment. In addition, the NIHR Participant in Research Experience Survey (PRES) commonly reports less satisfaction in the communication of research results or outcomes to participants than other aspects of taking part in the research. Breast Cancer Research Demystified aims to maintain communication with research participants so they are informed of ongoing research and advances that are being made.
For researchers who access de-identified samples and data from people with breast cancer, it was an opportunity to meet the people who agree to take part in research while undergoing diagnosis, treatment and follow up, and to answer their questions and comments. It was also an opportunity to communicate complicated concepts, techniques and data to a lay and very important audience.
Attendees heard from Alex Fulton, Clinical Research Fellow working on the Personalised Breast Cancer Program, the Wendy Cooper, Senior Research Associate in the Rosenfeld Group analysing samples and data from the BROVED studies to determine how we detect ctDNA in blood to for the early detection of breast cancer and Alecia-Jane Twigger and Akanksha Anand, from the Khaled and Hannon Groups, respectively, explaining how we are using clinical samples to learn more about Triple Negative Breast Cancer as part of the Wellcome LEAP project.
The highlight of the evening was the premiere of the new Breast Cancer research Participant film which can be previewed here and will be officially launched soon.
We’ve received some great feedback and aim to make it a regular event sharing a mix of information about Cambridge-led clinical trials and studies and the research behind them. Get in touch if you would like to be part of future Breast Cancer Research Demystified events
Many thanks to the events team at St John’s College, the presenters all the participants who attended.
The first Cambridge Precision Breast Cancer Symposium took place at the Gillespie Centre, Clare College, Cambridge on the 10th Feb. Researchers from Cambridge met with colleagues from across the UK, industry representatives and people who are living with breast cancer. International Keynote speakers Ramona Woitek, Head of the Medical Image Analysis and Artificial Intelligence Research Group, Danube Private University, Austria and Prof Judy Garber Director of the Center for Cancer Genetics and Prevention at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, US. Both gave fascinating presentations to open the morning and afternoon sessions.
We heard about Cambridge-based clinical studies and lab-based research from Charlotte Coles and Richard Baird (Department of Oncology), Walid Khaled (Dept of Pharmacology); Dario Bressan, Sunny Omarjee, Kirsty Sawicka and Karen Pinilla (CRUK Cambridge Institute) and Antonis Antoniou (Department of Public Health and Primary Care). From outside of Cambridge, Prof Karen Blyth (CRUK Beatson Institute, Glasgow) explained the complex role of the RUNX/CBFb in breast cancer and Luca Magnani (Imperial College London) described the dormancy of ER positive breast cancer though the many acting roles of Daniel Radcliffe. Insights into how computational networks can be used to model individual patient responses to treatment and the creation of biomaterials to model breast tissue were provided through poster presentations from Matthew Clarke (UCL Cancer Institute) and Jennifer Ashworth (University of Nottingham), respectively.
Special thanks to Annabelle and John who were frank and open sharing their Breast Cancer experiences with the meeting, raising awareness of the impact of a cancer diagnosis during pregnancy and carrying a BRCA mutation and being diagnosed with male breast cancer. Later in the afternoon we got a global perspective of inequalities in diagnosing and treating Breast cancer from Felicia Knaul (University of Miami). The day ended with Richard Gilbertson sharing current progress with the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital before a well-earned glass of wine.
Over 130 participants attended the 2023 event, representing a range of research interests including academia, commercial companies, the NHS, charitable organisations and breast cancer patients. The event received an overall quality rating of 9/10, along with the following positive statements:
“Meeting atmosphere felt very friendly and open,”
“The interdisciplinary approach was great, also very inspirational speakers”
“This was one of the best days at a conference in my long career. Every presenter was excellent.”
“The day ran seamlessly from my point of view, thank you!”
“Thank you Jean and Jason for a fantastic event! Top class”
We were overwhelmed with the positivity of the feedback from both delegates and speakers, and will be incorporating suggestions into our planning for #CPBC2024 Thank to everyone who attended and made it a memorable day.
Programme Contacts
