The NHS in England has started offering liquid biopsies to some women with breast cancer that has mutated. These circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) blood tests will show whether women with ER-positive HER2 negative secondary breast cancer have developed the ESR1 mutation which can sometimes occur after long-term treatment with hormone therapy. ER-positive cancer cells are…
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Olaparib (Lynparza) has now been approved by NICE as a second-line treatment of HER2-negative locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer in adults with mutated BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes who have had chemotherapy. Olaparib is a PARP inhibitor; PAPR is a protein which helps cancer cells repair themselves and Olaparib stops this repair process in these…
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In 2024 thanks to donors and fundraisers Secondary1st funded the first year of a research project led by Professor Simak Ali at Imperial College London investigating how changes in the ER gene contribute to hormone therapy resistance. About 44,000 people are diagnose with ER (oestrogen receptor) positive breast cancer each year in the UK and…
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The wonderful Alina, a specialist breast cancer nurse, arranged a pre-Christmas afternoon of music and song by courtesy of the Wellington Hospital. Three brilliant stars of musical theatre sang favourite songs from popular shows with keyboard accompaniment and helped to raise more than £600 for Secondary1st.
Next month the NHS will start to use a new ”ping and book” service to remind women via their phones that they are due or even overdue an appointment for breast cancer screening which they can then book through the NHS app. Data for 2022-23 has shown that 35.4% of women did not accept the…
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Laurence has just walked over 350km to reach the halfway point of the Camino de Santiago in north-western Spain and has raised over £1000 for Secondary First …. and she is not finished yet! In May she will be returning to the Camino to complete the last 400 km, reach Santiago de Compostela and raise…
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Seren is a drama therapist with a great deal of experience in helping people tackle their worries about chronic illness through creativity. She was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer and decided that something needed to be done to help younger people with secondary cancer cope by means of writing, singing, art and poetry. Together with…
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We recently marked our 8th anniversary. Since our launch in 2016 we have raised more than £890,000 and, thanks to our wonderful volunteers, 95% of the money raised goes to fund research. We have already funded 3 projects researching secondary breast cancer and have just started funding a fourth project. The first of these projects…
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Professor Klaus Pors and his PhD student Enrica have been working for three years on a project to improve an extremely toxic chemotherapy, so that it can be used to treat breast cancer. The researchers are working on duocarmycins which have been known to science for a long time. However, despite over 40 years of…
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Kayleigh’s wonderful friend Brenna ran the London Marathon to raise funds for Secondary1st in memory of Kayleigh’s amazing Mum Kerry. Brenna was a true star and finished in the fantastic time of 3 hours 50 minutes, a superb achievement.
Secondary1st is proud to have been able to fund this research project led by Seth Coffelt, Professor of Cancer Immunology at Glasgow University. This report on the project is very detailed but we believe that our supporters will welcome the chance to learn more about the research they have helped to fund. Immunotherapies are treatments…
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Secondary1st is delighted to announce that it has just awarded a grant to a project led by Professor Simak Ali, who is Professor of Molecular Endocrine Oncology at Imperial College London. Up to 80% of breast cancer diagnoses are ER-positive and many can be treated successfully with hormone therapy. However some ER-positive tumours stop responding…
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