Researchers to study ABC cancer cluster

A group of medical researchers will put the ABC under a microscope and examine a breast cancer cluster at the broadcaster's old Brisbane studios that has seen 15 women diagnosed with the disease since 1994.

The group, comprised of surgeons, pathologists, medical oncologists and other researchers, will look at tumour samples taken from all women who are willing to be part of the study and search for patterns or links between the cases.

They will look, in particular, for evidence of human papillomavirus or mouse virus, which are both known to be associated with breast cancer.

Director of pathology at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Glenn Francis, said he approached cancer survivor and former ABC journalist Lisa Backhouse following last week's news of yet another diagnosis.

Mother of four Angela Eckersley, 40, was found to have invasive breast cancer about three weeks ago and underwent surgery last week. She was the 15th former employee to be diagnosed in 13 years.

An expert panel convened last year could not find a cause for the cluster at the work site, which had a cancer rate up to 11 times higher than the general working community.

Staff were evacuated from the riverside site at Toowong in December last year, but former newsreader Lisa Backhouse said both the ABC and the scientific community should study their cases further.

Dr Francis said he and his colleagues had often discussed the case and were spurred on by Ms Backhouse's comments last week that no one had examined the women's tumour samples to look for similarities.

He said the study may not find a cause for the cluster but could shed new light on the mystery.

"We have quite a lot of data on sporadic breast cancers across Queensland and we can look at those and see if they match or if they're somehow different.

"If that was the case then that would indicate there is some association or that those patients are somehow linked together."

Dr Francis said the study would use tumour samples taken from the women at the time of diagnosis, which are stored in pathology labs for at least 20 years.

The group would need each woman's consent and a detailed picture would take up to a year to compile, involving a lot of "very laborious, hands-on work" at cold temperatures.

Dr Francis said it was difficult to predict what they would find, but the disease needed further probing.

"Generally we know about certain associations with breast cancer, like family history or increasing oestrogen levels, but why one particular patient will get it and another with the same history won't, we still don't know."

source : www.brisbanetimes.com.au