For the first time ever, a local NGO is donating funds towards breast cancer research, promoting a fresh mentality in the Maltese culture to support studies related to the disease.
Action for Breast Cancer Foundation is currently working on a project to finance a PhD in breast cancer research at the University of Malta on a full-time basis for three years.
It will be donating a sum of money to the Research Innovation and Development Trust (RIDT), which, in turn, will hand it over to Christian Scerri, who together with Godfrey Grech, will be the principal investigators.
“We came up with the idea of financing a PhD in breast cancer because we thought it was time we started supporting research and development through our scientists at the University of Malta,” said ABCF co-founder Esther Sant, referring to it as an “insightful investment”.
“It’s no novelty that, overseas, research is very prominent and it can also be seen as a way of fighting breast cancer. Moreover, when new drugs, with fewer side effects, are placed on the market, this can also give a breather to patients, leasing them more time with their loved ones,” she said.
“We have been hearing a lot about targeted therapy and the study of genes and genomics. They sound similar and are closely related, but they look at different things. Genetics looks at individual genes in isolation. Genomics looks at how all the groups of various genes in an individual interact with each other.
“The PhD ABCF will be sponsoring will eventually contribute to an ongoing study at the University of Malta, which is heavily funded by the EU.”
The research will investigate biomarkers, a parameter that can be used to measure the progress of disease or the effects of treatment.
Biomarkers help in early diagnosis, disease prevention, drug target-identification and drug response. In the future, it is expected that treatment for breast cancer will be personalised through a simple biological test that will outline the characteristics of the cancer cell, Ms Sant said.
“Through the development of new targeted medicine, we shall be expecting potential benefits for treatment of breast cancer, in particular triple negative breast cancer types, and also treatment that will target cancer cells with minimal or no effect on normal cells.”
The funds ABCF is donating are the result of the Alive Charity Foundation, composed of a group of cyclists who succeeded in the challenging task of cycling 800km from London to Brussels.
“These determined youngsters, full of energy, have managed to collect a significant amount of money that will be presented to the foundation for the PhD,” Ms Sant said.