Secondary1st is proud to fund vital research projects that seek a cure for secondary breast cancer.

In 2024 thanks to the ongoing support of our amazing donors and fundraisers we have begun funding the first year of a new project run by Professor Simak Ali, Professor of Molecular Endocrine Oncology, at Imperial College London. Secondary1st is funding a full-time post-doctoral researcher working in Professor Ali’s team to understand how changes in the ER gene help breast cancer cells grow despite hormone therapy. Up to 80% of breast cancer diagnoses are ER-positive and many can be treated successfully with hormone therapy, but some ER-positive tumours stop responding to their treatment after a time and can return and grow.

We have already funded the three-year project led by Professor Seth Coffelt, Professor of Cancer Immunology, at Glasgow University. Professor Coffelt and his team have been studying the relationship between cancer and the immune system. Among various healthy cells, immune cells emerged as powerful instigators of metastasis formation but at the same time able to prevent cancer cells from spreading. The two roles of these cells and their involvement in the metastatic process could lead to the development of new immunotherapies to counteract the spread of cancer.

We have also funded a PhD student working on the three-year project led by Professor Klaus Pors, Professor of Chemical Biology, at the Institute of Cancer Therapeutics at the University of Bradford. Professor Pors and his team are investigating the enzymes which metabolise certain drugs and ways of stopping some chemotherapy drugs, which are both ultra-potent and highly toxic, attacking healthy tissue while treating cancer cells.

In 2017 and 2018 we made grants of £75,000 each year to help fund a research team led by Professor Claire Wells, Professor in Cancer Cell Biology, at King’s College London. Professor Wells is a leading expert in how breast cancer cells migrate to other parts of the body. Her team was investigating the ways in which breast cancer cells can dissociate from the primary tumour, invade the surrounding tissue and then metastasise to other vital organs, with particular reference to two molecules which work together with others in a group to make cancer cells move easily and become more invasive. Professor Wells’ work also aims to give a better understanding of which patients are more likely to be at risk of their cancer spreading.