If breast cancer is to be prevented, its causes must be found. The Breakthrough Generations Study is a major study into the causes of breast cancer.

Each year in the UK nearly 44,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and the numbers are increasing. In principle many of these could be prevented, but to do so we need to gain a better understanding of the causes of breast cancer.

Scientific evidence indicates that breast cancer is caused by a complex mixture of factors - some to do with behaviour, such as lack of exercise, some to do with environment and some genetic (inherited). These factors act at many different stages of life, probably starting before birth, and continuing to the menopause and beyond.

To find out what these factors are, and how they combine with each other to cause breast cancer, a study is needed in which information about the factors, and how they change through life, is related to the risks of subsequent breast cancer.

The Breakthrough Generations Study is focused specifically on finding the causes of breast cancer.

A large study has therefore been set up as a partnership between The Institute of Cancer Research and Breakthrough Breast Cancer to investigate the causes of breast cancer.

The Breakthrough Generations Study is focused specifically on finding the causes of breast cancer.

Over 100,000 women from the general population are being recruited. Information is gathered at recruitment, about factors that might relate to breast cancer risk or protection. Contact is then kept with these women over time to determine their risks of breast cancer in relation to these factors; in medical terminology the study is called a “cohort study”.

Cohort studies are the most powerful method available to science to find out the causes of cancer in people. They are for instance, the method by which it was shown most clearly that cigarettes cause lung cancer and that asbestos causes cancer of the lining of the lung (pleural cancer).

The Generations Study has been designed to investigate the complex interplay of lifestyle, environmental, genetic and hormonal factors acting throughout a woman’s life and determine how these affect an individual’s risk of developing breast cancer. Pinpointing these factors should be of benefit to present and future generations, and enable women to make informed lifestyle choices.

Each year in the UK nearly 44,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and the numbers are increasing. In principle many of these could be prevented, but to do so we need to gain a better understanding of the causes of breast cancer.

The study will have a unique focus and scale, and will continue to give information for the next 40 years and longer, although the first results on breast cancer causes will be ready much sooner than that, in a few years from now.

The design of the study is not suitable to find causes of breast cancer in men. Therefore the study is solely for women. However, Breakthrough are now starting, in parallel with the Generations study, a large investigation of the causation of breast cancer in men. The design, unlike that for the Generations study, is based on men who are specifically approached to take part because they have had breast cancer, rather than volunteers from the general population.

The Breakthrough Generations Study was first conceived and designed by Professors Swerdlow and Ashworth and their teams in 2002. Following extensive discussions between The Institute of Cancer Research and Breakthrough Breast Cancer it was agreed a large cohort study was essential to investigate lifestyle, hormonal and genetic risk factors in breast cancer.

A pilot study to test the methods and recruit the first women into the study was conducted in 2003. This was successful and as a consequence Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Institute of Cancer Research agreed to a full scale study taking place.

The Study was publicly launched on the 2nd September, 2004 and received extensive television and newspaper coverage. The response was rapid and exceeded expectations with almost 15,000 women registering an interest to join the study via the website or telephone in the first 24 hours. Enquiries to join the study have kept arriving ever since.

The 50,000th participant was recruited in April 2006. There are now over 94,000 women who are members of the study, and recruitment is continuing.

If you are interested in joining the Breakthrough Generations Study you can request an information pack to decide whether you wish to take part, visit the website at www.breakthroughgenerations.org.uk or telephone 0870 242 4485.