Each year, BCRF convenes its researchers from around the world for an exclusive research retreat in New York City. The research retreat has been part of BCRF’s annual October events since the early 2000’s spurred by Scientific Director, Dr. Larry Norton’s vision of inspiring collaboration and conversation among the brightest minds in breast cancer research.
This year, BCRF welcomed more than 200 of its 275 2017-2018 investigators for a one-day retreat to share their emerging data and discuss future directions with their colleagues and peers. BCRF staff had a unique opportunity to interview several of the attending investigators live on Facebook during the retreat.
BCRF Scientific Program Manager, Dr. Maneesh Kumar spoke with Boston-based investigators, Priscilla Brastianos, Nancy Lin and Nikhil Wagle on their work in metastatic breast cancer. The researchers describe how advances in technology have opened the door to new research that is answering questions about why breast cancers spread to specific parts of the body, what causes breast cancer to become resistant to drugs that ultimately leads to metastasis and to understanding how metastatic tumors evolve over time. They speak of how important collaboration and data sharing is to advance metastatic breast cancer research and the importance of working with patients as partners in research and clinical trials. You can view the entire interview here.
Dr. Margaret Flowers, Director of Scientific Communications, spoke with BCRF investigators Peggy Porter from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington and Dame Lesley Fallowfield of Brighton and Sussex Medical School in Brighton, UK about work they are doing in breast cancer prevention and survivorship. Dr. Porter is conducting a study on the effect of long-term, low dose radiation on breast cancer risk. Very little is known about the risk associated with this kind of exposure and her group has a unique opportunity to study women exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. Dr. Fallowfield discusses some of the challenges in patient-doctor conversations about treatment options and risks of recurrence. Her team is developing a training tool to help doctors conduct these conversations in a way that both informs and empowers patients to be part of the cancer care. Here more about their research and recommendations by viewing the full conversation here.
Be sure to follow BCRF on Facebook and look for more live researcher interviews during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, December 4-11.
Please remember BCRF in your will planning. Learn More
