Giving hope to those affected
by secondary breast cancer
Research. Support. Education.
Giving hope to those affected
by secondary breast cancer
What a busy year it has been in Research! Since welcoming our new Research Manager, Dr Sarah Thomas, we have completed our first research grant awarded by the charity, announced our largest ever grant and launched our first open call for research proposals to kick off in 2024.
We recently celebrated the completion of the first ever research grant awarded by Make 2nds Count. In 2019 the charity awarded £145,000 to Dr Olga Oikonomidou at the University of Edinburgh. This grant was used to fund a postdoctoral research scientist for 3 years focussing on Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC). The research scientist studied tumour samples from TNBC patients from initial diagnosis to recurrence, looking at how gene mutations in the cancer change and evolve over the course of treatment. We are so grateful to Olga and her research team for all their hard work over the last 3 years and hope their findings will help improve our understanding of the genetics of TNBC and lead to more treatment options in the future.
Earlier this year we announced our largest ever research grant of £220,000 awarded to Prof Carlo Palmieri at the University of Liverpool to support a new study taking place across the UK & Ireland investigating screening secondary breast cancer patients for brain metastases before they become symptomatic. The Research Team has been working hard to get everything in place for this vital study opening in 2024 and we can’t wait to get started.
In July, researchers at the University of Sussex published the first research paper funded by Make 2nds Count, investigating the information and support needs of the UK secondary breast cancer community. It was an emotional moment to see the research we supported being shared with researchers across the globe. Check out the article: Living with metastatic breast cancer (LIMBER): experiences, quality of life, gaps in information, care and support of patients in the UK, published in the Journal Supportive Care in Cancer.
Right now we are half-way through the first Make 2nds Count open call for research proposals. Open to all researchers in the UK, we are looking for research projects which deliver direct benefit to people living with secondary breast cancer. Through an open and transparent application process, we received 5 times more applications than ever received previously on a range of important topics including physical exercise, insomnia, treatments and palliative care. These applications are currently being reviewed by a panel of medical oncologists, research experts and patient advocates and we’ll be announcing the successful research project in Spring 2024.
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