Giving hope to those affected
by secondary breast cancer
Research. Support. Education.
Giving hope to those affected
by secondary breast cancer
A 5 year anniversary interview with Dr Olga Oikonomidou, the first recipient of research funding from Make 2nds Count.
Dr Olga Oikonomidou is a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Principal Investigator of the Breast Cancer Translational Research Group at the University of Edinburgh. Dr Oikonomidou’s group conducts advanced molecular research on the biology of breast cancer. Some of this work has been supported by Make 2nds Count through the funding of a 3-year postdoctoral researcher role.
TNBC accounts for ~15% of all breast cancer cases and around 8,000 women are diagnosed with TNBC in the UK each year. TNBC is harder to treat than other breast cancer types, has a higher risk of spreading and disproportionately affects women under 40 and those from black backgrounds.
In late May 2023 at Make 2nds Count we celebrated five years since the charity was founded. To mark the occasion we sat down with Dr Oikonomidou to chat about the impact of our first research grant, what the work of Make 2nds Count means to her and her future aspirations for the charity.
My group had the privilege of being awarded the first Make 2nds Count research grant, three years ago.
This grant was used to fund a 3 year post-doctoral position within my group at the University of Edinburgh. The project I assigned to the senior post doctoral research fellow is a cutting-edge research project investigating TNBC.
The aim of this project is to investigate the molecular changes that occur during the progression of TNBC. We are researching the genetic changes within TNBC tumours and how these genetic changes evolve/change over time from initial diagnosis to relapse.
Most TNBC patients receive chemotherapy before surgery to shrink their tumour. This is known as neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT). There is an urgent need to better understand how TNBC tumours respond to this treatment and how their genetic make-up evolves/changes in response to NACT. This will help us understand the molecular changes in TNBC that are associated with the tumour going into remission or recurrence.
Using modern DNA sequencing technologies, we examined genetic changes in a unique set of TNBC patient samples collected from initial diagnosis and from three regions of residual tumour post-NACT and from recurrent tumours from the same patients.
Using advanced biological computing and statistical modelling techniques we compared these same samples from each patient through time, and across patients, to identify what genetic changes/evolution events are happening during disease progression from early setting to the metastatic one.
We also validated a cost-effective laboratory method for carrying out this genetic research at a large-scale.
The scientific manuscript presenting the data is in preparation and the results will be presented at the 2023 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Texas in December.
I have had the chance to see Make 2nds Count growing, evolving and thriving over the last 5-years.
Make 2nds Count supports research, education and secondary breast cancer patients and aims to give hope to patients and their families.
I am also very happy to be part of the Make 2nds Count Research Committee. The Research Committee aims to evaluate whether a proposed project is consistent with the charity's mission, whether the appropriate resources are in place to conduct the research, and if the study outcomes are likely to benefit secondary breast cancer patients.
I am also delighted to see the direct patients’ benefit derived from the Patient Trials Advocate (PTA) Service, which I suggested a few years ago. The PTA Service has been successful and received such great feedback from patients.
My hopes and aspirations for Make 2nds Count include building strong partnerships to support clinical trials, translational research but also qualitative research that can improve patients' quality of life. Make 2nds Count has built strong foundations over these past 5 years and I have no doubt that Make 2nds Count's big ambitions will be achieved by driving forward transformational projects to secure more impact in the years to come. I wish Make 2nds Count every success!
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