Ground-breaking breast cancer research conduced by researchers at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has reached the next exciting stage in its development.

Research conducted by Dr Sally-Anne Stephenson identified a protein that is found on the outside of cancer cells but not normal cells. Studies indicate that this proteins’ function assists tumour cells to grow and multiply, but more importantly a potential therapy has been developed to target this protein, altering its function and thus causing the death of the cancer cell.

This landmark research has now reached a stage where the effectiveness of the potential therapy, in binding to cancer cells and prohibiting their growth has been illustrated in-vitro (cells in the lab) and in vivo.

Paul Flynn, CEO of The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation said that funding efforts will now be targeted at entering the next stage, which is clinical trials.

“The continuation of this research into the clinical trials phase is extremely important and also very exciting,” he said.

This research had been internationally recognised as being a promising treatment for breast cancer and has recently been awarded patents in New Zealand, Singapore, Europe and the United States.

“It is also well on its way to being patented in Australia,” said Mr Flynn.

This research also has the potential to lead to the development of treatments for other high incidence cancers such as prostate, lung and colon cancer.

“This is an additional benefit to this exciting research and we are anticipating the next stage results,” said Mr Flynn.