Funding Daily Summary
Funding Daily Summary: What Happened on October 28, 2026
Breast Cancer Now commits £800,000 to AI studies of breast cancer recurrence
The funding backs two projects on why estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer can return years after treatment.
Today in brief
Two research teams will share £800,000 from Breast Cancer Now to investigate late recurrence of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.1
Two approaches to recurrence
One team will use AI models and cancer-cell data to study how cancer cells become dormant, stay dormant and start growing again.1 It will examine how dormant cancer cells interact with nearby immune cells, blood vessels and connective tissue for changes that might signal future recurrence.1
A second team, led by Maggie Cheang, will analyze tumor samples from the POETIC trial using imaging, molecular methods and computational analysis.1 The researchers will look for patterns linked to treatment resistance and later recurrence.1
The researchers hope to identify risk indicators that might be detectable within two weeks of diagnosis and could eventually help tailor treatment and follow-up.1