07801 717250
brcaunite@ucl.ac.ukAbout
The BRCA UNITE Research Clinic
Uniting researchers and BRCA mutation carriers to advance our understanding of hereditary cancer.
The BRCA UNITE study aims to determine the key triggers and factors why a woman with a BRCA mutation will develop breast and/or ovarian cancer and, most importantly, identify new ways to prevent these cancers.
We hope that by identifying such risk factors, we will be able to give better advice to women about their options for staying healthy and preventing the development of breast, ovarian, womb and cervical cancer.
To date there has never been a ground-breaking study like this, with such specific focus and attention to BRCA mutation carriers.
HELP US BUILD A COMMUNITY TOGETHER
In order to make progress in the area of women’s cancer, the research community needs all the help and guidance it can receive from women who carry a BRCA gene mutation, as well as their female relatives and friends.
This study is therefore unique in the sense that we would like to recruit both BRCA1/2 carriers, as well as extending the invitation to participate in the study to their sisters and female cousins who have tested negative for a BRCA1 gene mutation (untested controls also welcome). This is so that we can directly compare women who carry the mutation with their relatives who are BRCA negative.
Your contribution is vital if we are to understand why these deadly cancers develop and how we can prevent them. The study will also look at protective factors, and participants will receive a readout of their hormonal profile.
HOW TO TAKE PART
We hope that you will join our research community and help us find these answers. We are currently looking for volunteers who have previously tested for the BRCA mutation and are either positive or negative. Ideally we would like to encourage female relatives of BRCA1/2 mutation carriers that have tested negative to participate in the study, but even with no other eligible family members you are warmly welcome to take part.
Other criteria include:
- Women aged 18-45 years
- No previous preventative or ‘prophylactic’ removal of both fallopian tubes and ovaries
- Not pregnant or currently breastfeeding
- Not taking any hormonal contraception (i.e the pill, implant) for the past 2 months
The reason for this is so that we can assess more accurately the hormonal and biological processes that occur in women of a reproductive age.
“I carry a BRCA mutation and have undergone risk-reducing breast surgery and have also had my ovaries and Fallopian tubes removed to lower my risk of cancer. This study is important to the high-risk community and women in the general population, because it means we may not have to undergo such drastic surgeries in the future.”
