Breast and Ovarian Cancer

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, affecting 1 in 14 Australian women. Ovarian cancer is less common, but because it is not usually detected until it has spread around the body, has a very poor prognosis. Research at the QIMR is aimd at developing a better understanding of who is at particular risk for these cancers, and how they develop from normal precursor cells.

• New breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes
• Epidemiological studies of the causes of ovarian cancer
• Modification of risk in BRCA1 and BRCA2 carriers
• Identification of tumour suppressor genes on chromosome 8
• cDNA arrays to look for ovarian cancer genes
• BRCA1 and BRCA2 variants of unclassified pathogenic potential
• Ovarian cancer survival genes