Grant: Operating Grant: CCS/CIHR Action Grants

Current options to predict breast cancer risk are limited and the majority of preventative guidelines are aligned with broad population-wide recommendations. There is a need to identify who is at high risk of breast cancer so that we can tailor prevention strategies to the individual. In doing so, we can move beyond a reactive model of cancer care and, instead, develop personalised proactive guidelines that would improve the health of Canadians and reduce the burden of disease on healthcare. We will implement a molecular cancer risk prediction model to identify individuals at a high risk of cancer development, and capture modifiable behavioural and environmental features correlating with high risk. Our work will allow us to better understand who is at risk of cancer development. Through identifying individuals at high risk of developing breast cancer, we will assess the utility of behavioral and environmental modification strategies, such as alcohol and diet, at reducing risk. We will evaluate molecular risk profiling as a predictive approach for identifying individuals at high-risk of breast cancer development through leveraging the longitudinal nature of population cohorts. Our tools both identify individuals at high risk of breast cancer and can detect signatures associated with modifiable risk factors including alcohol and diet. We will use this tool to develop active, tailored prevention in high risk individuals in partnership with relevant stakeholders. One in every eight Canadian women will be impacted by breast cancer in their lifetime. We hope to reduce the thousands of Canadians affected by breast cancer each year through optimizing the window for prevention of breast cancer. Our work, which will identify individuals at high risk of cancer development and associated modifiable risk factors, will enable clinicians to tailor prevention strategies to a patient’s environmental and behavioural profile.