General

By investigating the interplay between environmental, hormonal and genetic factors and risk of developing breast cancer in a large group of women, the Generations Study aims to discover the causes of breast cancer, and hence enable prevention of this disease.

Scientific evidence indicates that the causation of breast cancer involves a complex mixture of factors – some to do with behaviour, 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 collected from women who are then followed 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 need to include a very large number of people, and to continue for a long time, but in the long-run they are the most powerful method available to science to find out the causes of cancer in people.

By participating, women help in the search for factors that cause breast cancer and hence for ways in which the disease can be prevented. Finding out about such factors is important both for the care and counselling of the families of breast cancer patients, and also for women in general, to understand their risks and to find ways in which they can be reduced. The results of the study will be available to participants if they want to know them, but the study will not provide results about individuals.

The study is led by Professor Anthony Swerdlow (Professor of Epidemiology at The Institute of Cancer Research) and Professor Alan Ashworth (Chief Executive at The Institute of Cancer Research). Breakthrough Breast Cancer is supporting the study in partnership with The Institute of Cancer Research.

Throughout the study, the scientists involved will receive advice from an independent Advisory Committee, which is made up of scientific experts and participant representatives, to ensure that the participants have a voice in how the study is run. The governance and overall running of the study is the responsibility of the Oversight Body, whose members include an equal number of representatives from Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Institute of Cancer Research.

The study is being funded jointly by the charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer and The Institute of Cancer Research, which is part of the University of London.

The study will run for the next 40 to 50 years, although we hope to have the first findings about breast cancer within the first few years of the study.