Professor Chris Ormandy

Thankyou from Professor Chris Ormandy

Professor Chris Ormandy is part of a team of researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research that are investigating a breast cancer known as triple-negative. This type accounts for nearly 20 percent of all breast cancer diagnoses, often appears in younger women, has a poor prognosis and is very aggressive.

Chris and his team are aiming to find genes that can become targets for new therapies – just as the discovery of HER2 led to the development of Herceptin.

Chris explained why this research was so important. “If you look at the latest NSW breast cancer statistics, it appears that the recent reduction in mortality that we have seen for breast cancer is again reaching a plateau, so that tells us that we have nearly realised the full benefit of the improvements in detection and treatment that have been made so far.

“Without more funding for breast cancer research, where we are now is where we would stay. There would be no new cures. So thank you to Cancer Council donors for supporting our work. Thank you for seeing this as a valuable way of spending your money.”