The gap in breast cancer research

There is a growing gap in breast cancer research. Get past all the pink awareness bullshit and look at research that is currently going on. There has been lots of progress in the past four or five years where scientists are beginning to understand the complexities and unpick some reasons on how cancer cells work divide and spread. But they also realize the most important research gap is to find out how cancer progresses.

They identified 10 key gaps that need be plugged:

• better understanding of genetic factors
• pinpointing sustainable lifestyle changes
• targeted breast screening to those who will most benefit
• understanding how breast cancers grow and spread
• understanding how cancer cells with different characteristics form within a tumour
• tests to measure how well patients will respond to chemotherapy or radiotherapy
• improving drug regimens
• developing better imaging techniques
• practical support
• tissue donation and analysis

I completely support a change in direction in research to learn how cancer progresses instead of just focusing on the cause or treatment of it.

As this has been identified now, I hope to see changes in this direction in the future.