The main focus of the Centre is to harness patient information and clinical data on a national level, using novel biological, mathematical and computational approaches in order to determine how to treat individual breast cancer patients according to the particular characteristics of their own cancer.

To do this, information that has already been collected regarding nearly every breast cancer patient in the country will be used, in addition to tumour samples from as many of these patients as possible. Using these resources, we will carry out state-of-the-art studies into the exact nature of breast cancer in Irish patients by identifying the changes that take place in this complex disease which determine

(a) which patients respond to a particular drug,

(b) how cancers change over time as they are being treated, and

(c) if drugs that patients have taken prior to their diagnosis may have any effect on the outcome of

their cancer treatment.

As part of the programme, we will test ways to find new treatment strategies, either by more accurately pinpointing those patients who will respond well to a particular drug, or by identifying new combinations of drugs that will help patients to beat their disease more effectively. We will also develop new tools for improved prediction of patient outcome and response to treatment. Involving six leading academic centres around Ireland with expert computational and laboratory scientists, as well as a nationwide cancer-focused clinical trials group, BREAST-PREDICT represents a truly national effort to improve the lives of Irish breast cancer patients.