The Foundation has announced its prestigious Australian Breast Cancer Research Fellowship is being awarded to prominent cancer researcher Professor Michael Samuel.

The $1.375 million five-year Fellowship will be undertaken at the Basil Hetzel Institute (BHI) for Translational Health Research located at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, to investigate a potential new class of therapies to slow or stop the spread of breast cancer.

Samuel was awarded the Fellowship after a highly-competitive application process.

Samuel is recognised for his work in discovering how breast and other cancers exploit genetically normal cells within microenvironments to promote cancer metastasis (spread), developed at the Centre for Cancer Biology and University of South Australia.

He is known as a leader in the cancer microenvironment field and intends to use insights from his research, together with expertise from collaborators, to target the tumour-promoting microenvironment in breast cancers.

“New immunotherapies notwithstanding, we are yet to fully investigate the microenvironment for durable therapies,” Samuel said.

“The deadliest cancers are those that invade and spread around the body. Invasive cancers hijack the normal cells around them to help them spread, including changing the stiffness of their surroundings.

“Halting this process is the holy grail of cancer research. This project aims to convert our new knowledge of this process into a novel class of breast cancer therapies.”

Professor Michael Samuel and his team will search for a potential new class of therapies to slow or stop the spread of breast cancer

Breast cancer deaths have plateaued in Australia in recent years, sitting at about 3,050 deaths in 2018 despite declining steadily over the previous two decades.

“We may therefore have exhausted survival gains with current approaches and a new paradigm should inform next generation therapies,” Samuel said.

“We have many stages to this work and will also be using artificial intelligence to advance our knowledge as well as close collaboration with clinicians.”

Paul Flynn, CEO of The Hospital Research Foundation Group said the Fellowship had been running for the past 10 years, with previous outcomes helping to change screening policy about breast density, as well as insights into the impact the menstrual cycle has on test results.

“We are proud to have had a real impact on improving screening practices to help women catch breast cancer earlier,” Flynn said.

“We look forward to building on that impact with Professor Samuel’s project to find new approaches to stop breast cancer from progressing to an advanced deadly stage.”

Professor Guy Maddern, Director of Research at the BHI, said the Fellowship enabled research to delve deeply into the prevention, detection, management and treatment of breast cancer.

“Many of the issues surrounding breast cancer are also relevant for other cancers, providing further important guidance about their treatment,” Maddern said.

“Professor Samuel’s group will fit in well with the expertise already working at the BHI.”

The Fellowship has been made possible thanks to the generosity of donors, fundraisers, corporate supporters and Home Lottery ticket buyers.

Learn more at HospitalResearch.org.au/togetherfight