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Cancer is a genetic disease – it occurs because of genetic changes in the body that change how a cell grows, and because it occurs more often in people who have an inherited predisposition to cancer. My aim is to uncover more of the genetic events that give rise to cancer, particularly of the breast, ovary and stomach, so that we can identify people at high risk, and advice them accordingly, and also so that we can devise better treatments directed at particular genetic alterations.
Breast And Ovarian Cancer: Beyond Genome Wide Association Studies
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$863,910.00
Summary
My research is focused on using genetic approaches to understand the basis of cancer, particularly breast and ovarian cancer. Although many risk factors have been identified for these cancers, they do not lend themselves to primary prevention, except for high risk individuals who opt for prophylactic surgery, and so there is an urgent need to understand the aetiology of these cancers in order to develop better risk prediction algorithms and risk reduction medications.
Prof Lindeman's laboratory, co-headed with Dr Visvader, has played an influential role in the identification of mammary stem and progenitor cells, elucidation of the mammary epithelial cell hierarchy and gaining insights into how female hormones regulate mammary gland development and cancer. In parallel, I have established translational research platforms such as patient-derived tumour xenograft (PDX) models, which offer powerful preclinical models to test new drugs.
Genetics And Genomics Of Breast And Ovarian Cancer
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$714,745.00
Summary
Our knowledge of the number and nature of the genes involved in breast and ovarian cancer is limited. To rapidly define the critical breast and ovarian cancer-causing genes my laboratory uses an integrative genomics approach whereby information from several genome-wide platforms are combined. A key initiative that will underpin much of our work is Lifepool, which is a unique cohort of 100,000 Victorian women attending BreastScreen that will support a range of research into breast cancer.
I am a clinician-scientist engaged in basic, translational and clinical breast cancer research, with the long-term goal to identify and exploit novel cancer targets to improve patient outcomes. My research, which covers both sporadic and hereditary forms of breast cancer, is focussed on elucidating the breast epithelial cell hierarchy, in order to identify key regulators responsible for breast epithelial cell proliferation, differentiation and cancer.
Determining recurrence risk in breast cancer is crucial, as more than half of all recurrences occur after 5 years. However, optimal management of breast cancer is hampered by the challenges in finding rational preventative and predictive targets. Our vision is to find targets responsible for progenitor cell expansion, as candidates for prevention, and to find markers of relapse, to predict early versus late responders to therapy.
Cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed & developing world. Underpinning the causes of cancer are genetic and cellular changes in key structural proteins that control cell growth and movement. My research aims to discover key links in the regulation of these proteins that lead to tumour formation, metastasis and drug resistance. My goal is to use this knowledge to develop effective and less toxic treatment strategies to target difficult-to-treat cancers.
Genetic factors responsible for risk of breast and prostate cancer are largely unknown. Mutations in genes currently known to be associated with susceptibility only account for a small proportion of the familial aggregation of these cancers. I will be applying new genetic technology to population-based studies of cancer to identify new genetic and epigenetic markers of cancer risk. I will use this information to improve health care for families with prostate and breast cancer.
I am an NHMRC Australia Fellow and mathematical statistician by training, specializing in the design and analysis of family and twin studies. I lead or co-lead large international molecular, environmental, genetic and analytic epidemiology family resources for studying breast, bowel and other cancers. My vision is realise the full potential of these studies to improve the health and well-being people at increased familial or genetic risk of these diseases.