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Welcome to MyBRISK Impact, our biannual eNews highlighting the latest activities of the MyBRISK Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) on breast cancer screening.
If you have news, research, findings and upcoming events you’d like to share, please email mybrisk-cre@unimelb.edu.au
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NBCF awards $1.5 million grant to breast screening
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MyBRISK’s Professor John Hopper has been working in the BRAIx program, with partners St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, BreastScreen Victoria, St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, and the Australian Institute of Machine Learning at the University of Adelaide, that is jointly developing AI models to improve breast cancer screening. Professor Hopper and colleagues have recently discovered a new mammogram-based measure of breast cancer risk (BRAIx risk score) that can predict the risk of developing breast cancer better than all known genetic factors.
Now, the National Breast Cancer Foundation has announced a $1.5 million grant to a global team of researchers from MyBRISK, Australian universities, Korea, Malaysia and Colombia who will examine novel methods to investigate the genetic and lifestyle factors contributing to the BRAIx risk score. Digital mammograms, blood samples and personal information will be collected from pairs of twins and sisters with and without breast cancer. These findings could potentially lead to ways to lower the risk of breast cancer and identify women and their families at high risk.
Read more
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Why Study Mammographic Density Conference 2024:
SAVE THE DATE, CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
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MyBRISK is again hosting this bi-annual two-day conference featuring leaders in their fields from Australia and overseas. Save the date: 29-30th October 2024. Venue is the University of Melbourne. The conference brings together a multi-disciplinary mix of researchers, clinicians, consumers, industry providers, and policy makers. Sessions cover a wide spectrum of topics including biology, measurement and screening, advanced analytics including AI, epidemiology and genetics, public health policy and community engagement.
Call for abstracts here
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Congratulations to latest MyBRISK grant recipients
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| Recipients of MyBRISK research grants (left to right): Professor Rik Thompson, Professor Enes Makalic, and Associate Professor Wendy Ingham |
MyBRISK has supported two grant rounds with five projects awarded in total. Congratulations to the three latest recipients of the second round of MyBRISK research grants:
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Associate Professor Enes Makalic, University of Melbourne, Using AI and Machine Learning Algorithms for Region-based Analyses of Existing GWAS Datasets to Identify Novel Genetic Risk Regions for Breast Cancer
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Professor Rik Thompson, Queensland University of Technology, Registration and Alignment of Histology, Portable MRI and Micro-CT (x-ray) for Elucidating the Tissue Component of Mammographic Density Brightness
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Associate Professor, Wendy Ingham, University of Adelaide, Optimising Public Dissemination of Breast Density and MyBRISK Research Through the InforMD Website
Learn more about these research projects
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New three-way research and industry partnership
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MyBRISK CRE has joined with the University of Melbourne’s Department of General Practice and industry partner, Genetic Technologies, in a co-funded initiative to develop a risk model incorporating mammographic density, genetic risk factors and family history with the aim to improve current breast cancer screening practices. Research Fellow, Dr Anna Withanage Dona, has joined the initiative and is looking at the feasibility of, and how to accomplish, incorporating different risk factors into a single easy-to-use and easy-to-understand model. We welcome Anna at Our People below.
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NBCF launches Pink Horizon Research Strategy
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The National Breast Cancer Foundation recently launched its new five-year Pink Horizon Research Strategy. Under the strategy, NBCF is providing up to $125 million of funding over the next five years to support research focused on one or more of its four key objectives – Prevent, Detect, Stop and Treat. There are three connected grant schemes: Collaborative Research Accelerator Grants; Research Project Grants; and Pink Sky Grants to support “high risk, high reward research projects with significant paradigm shifting potential to revolutionise approaches to combating breast cancer.”
Details about the new NBCF research strategy here
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Review to improve BreastScreen Australia program
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The Australian Government, in partnership with state and territory governments, has announced a review of the BreastScreen Australia Program. The review follows the recommendations of the four-year government-funded Roadmap to Optimising Screening in Australia (ROSA) project, delivered by Cancer Council Australia. “This review is an opportunity to ensure the BreastScreen Australia Program stays up to date with the most cutting-edge technology and evidence to detect cancer,” Minister of Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said. The government expects to publish the final review and recommendations by the end of 2024. More details about the review, and how to get involved, can be found at BreastScreen Australia National Policy and Funding Review
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AI in Australian breast cancer screening
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MyBRISK CRE recently hosted an inaugural meeting of the Artificial Intelligence in Australian Breast Cancer Screening special interest group at the University of Melbourne. Over 30 people attended online or in-person from around Australia including researchers, radiologists, BreastScreen representatives, clinicians, GPs, AI experts, industry and community partners as well as consumers.
The group was set up to bring interested parties together to share current projects, how we might work collaboratively in the future, and how the CRE can help – with the overall aim of enabling cross-disciplinary communication on this increasingly important topic.
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Update on research with twins
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We thank the nearly 5000 twins around Australia who have participated in our Health Behaviours and Cancer Screening Survey. MyBRISK is conducting this research in partnership with Twins Research Australia and the Bowel Cancer Screening Alliance. We are currently analysing the results and undertaking exploratory qualitative interviews with a subset of discordant/concordant pairs. It is hoped the findings will give unique insights into how people choose to access and participate in screening programs.
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Research Fellow joins three-way research partnership
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| Welcome to Dr Anna Withanage and Max Schuran to the MyBRISK team |
Dr Anna Withanage Dona has joined a three-way research partnership between MyBRISK CRE, University of Melbourne’s Department of General Practice and industry partner, Genetic Technologies, as a Research Fellow in Cancer Genomics and Health Service Research. Anna’s new role is part of a co-funded initiative between the three organisations to develop a risk model incorporating mammographic density, genetic risk factors and family history to change current breast cancer screening practices.
Anna completed her Biomedical Sciences PhD in 2021, then received a VCCC Alliance Internship to translate research-based evidence into a clinical practice setting. At Peter Copulos Cancer and Wellness Centre, Goulburn Valley Health, Anna was directly involved with implementation of oncology clinical trials and their day-to-day coordination. She was also a Teaching Academic (Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Deakin University) and Research Scientist/Site Coordinator for AirHealth, a collaboration with Department of Health and Human Services Victoria, University of Melbourne and Bureau of Meteorology.
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New PhD candidate joins MyBRISK
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Max Schuran commenced as a PhD candidate earlier this year, supervised by MyBRISK investigators Dr Gillian Dite, Professor Enes Makalic, and Professor John Hopper, moving to Melbourne from Germany. He has a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from TU Munich, and a Bachelor of Science in the same field at RWTH Aachen University. As part of his studies, Max worked at Siemens researching Machine Learning application in digital manufacturing as well as Large Language Models. At MSPGH, Max is working on improving breast cancer risk prediction from genetic data (Polygenic Risk Scores) by utilizing Machine Learning.
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Dr Sue Malta awarded NBCF Fellowship
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Congratulations to MyBRISK's Dr Sue Malta who has received the prestigious 2024 National Breast Cancer Foundation Elaine Henry Fellowship. It is awarded each year to “the pre-eminent NBCF Fellow who exhibits the greatest promise as a future leader in breast cancer research.” Sue is a Senior Research Fellow and Project Manager of MyBRISK CRE. She is also Co-Investigator on the recently awarded NBCF grant with Principal Investigator John Hopper for “A study of twins and sisters for predicting breast cancer risk from mammograms.”
"As a qualitative health researcher, I am particularly proud to receive this fellowship as it highlights the importance of using multiple methodologies in breast cancer research," Dr Malta said. "Ultimately, qualitative health research enhances our understanding of the complexities surrounding breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment, and empowers women by amplifying their voices in the research process, as well as demonstrating how we can change policy and practice to ensure NBCF's Zero Deaths is achievable."
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Chief Investigator becomes AEA Fellow
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Congratulations to MyBRISK Chief Investigator Professor John Hopper who became a Fellow of the Australasian Epidemiological Association at its Annual Scientific Meeting in Melbourne for “his sustained and exceptional contributions to the field of epidemiology.”
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The VCCC Alliance’s Breast Cancer Grand Round with A/Prof Helen Frazer
Online, 12.30-1.30pm, Wednesday 15th May 2024
Join A/Prof Fraser as she shares how AI has the potential to improve accuracy, client experience, and efficiency in breast cancer screening. Following promising results from retrospective real-world studies, hear about a randomised controlled trial planned during 2024
Further details
The VCCC’s Breast Cancer Grand Round with Prof Ian Campbell
Online, 12.30-1.30pm, Wednesday 12th June 2024
Since the discovery of BRCA1 and BRCA2, no equivalent high penetrance predisposition genes have been found. Consequently, the genetic cause of the majority of hereditary breast cancer families remains unresolved. Join Prof Campbell to learn about a pioneering whole exome sequencing that revealed the remaining heritability must be due to numerous genes, utilising unique, large cohorts and clinical resources to integrate multiple types of data
Further details
The Familial Aspects of Cancer: Research & Practice 2024
Tuesday 27th August — Friday 30th August 2024
In-person (Kingscliff, NSW) and online
Further details
The Leura 2024 International Breast Cancer Conference
Wednesday 23rd to Saturday 26th October 2024
In-person, Blue Mountains, NSW
Further details - is this the right link?
The 8th Biennial Why Study Mammographic Density International Conference 2024
Tuesday 29th October to Wednesday 30th October 2024
In-person (Melbourne) and online
Further details
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Literature updates and discussion group
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MyBRISK compiles a list each week of the most topical papers, articles and news stories on mammographic density. The list is distributed via email as well as an online Teams group where members can comment on and discuss the key issues. You can subscribe to the weekly email here
Here is a selection of significant papers published recently:
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MyBRISK is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council and is a collaboration between the University of Melbourne and our project investigators and partner organisations.
View our team and affiliations
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Contact us
MyBRISK Centre of Research Excellence
Melbourne School of Population and Global Health
The University of Melbourne
Level 3, 207 Bouverie Street, Carlton
Victoria, 3010, Australia
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Copyright 2023: MyBRISK CRE; all rights reserved.
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