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• About the study
• Study outline
• What is involved in taking part
• History of the Study
• The newsletter

If breast cancer is to be prevented, its causes must be found. The Breakthrough Generations Study is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken into the causes of breast cancer.

Why is the study needed

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

Scientific evidence indicates that the causation of breast cancer involves 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.

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.