GUERNSEY women will have the chance to participate in a huge investigation into the causes of breast cancer. The Breakthrough Generations Study, launched in the UK yesterday, will involve more than 100,000 women and is the first project of its kind in the world.

It will cost £12m. for the first 10 years but is expected to continue for 30 or 40 years after that.

Organisers of the research want local women to become involved. Dr David Jeffs, director of public health, applauded the initiative. He said that local women had been involved in research in the past.

‘Guernsey pioneered a lot of initial research with the Imperial Cancer campaign. Several thousand Guernsey women took part around 20 to 25 years ago. Your mothers were involved – this is your chance.’

The size of the project will enable researchers to look for similarities in women who contract the disease.

‘We need very large studies of this kind to find out what is going on,’ said Professor Alan Ashworth of the Institute of Cancer Research, one of the two project leaders.

Dr Brian Parkin, local spokesman for the British Medical Association, agreed.

‘The problem is that for a common disease, to obtain statistically useful information, it has to be done on a large number of people, which is why few research projects such as this are done.’

Dr Parkin added that the problem with Guernsey was that, with such a small population, it was difficult to obtain accurate statistics.

‘Dealing with small numbers can skew the figures,’ he said.

Previous research projects have tended to concentrate on specific links to cancer such as the pill, hormone replacement therapy and diet. This time the questions will be much more wide-ranging to try to determine who is at risk.

‘There have been real improvements in treatment and diagnosis over the last decade but what’s absolutely vital is to prevent the disease occurring in the first place,’ said Prof. Ashworth.

Dr Jeffs compared the proposed research with the work by Sir Richard Doll, who made the link between smoking and lung cancer.

‘Ninety per cent of lung cancer is smoking related. We already know some of the factors related to breast cancer, such as being overweight, [and] excess alcohol, and we know that it runs in some families. But we do not know all the factors.’

About a third of new cancers detected every year in local women are breast related but deaths have fallen by 51% over the last 10 years.

‘Things do seem to be improving. Last year, only one Guernsey woman died of breast cancer – we’ve never been down to that before,’ said Dr Jeffs.

But Dr Parkin said that improving breast cancer survival rates were not an reason for complacency.

‘We can’t afford to be too upbeat about our statistics but we do have a good screening service which can be commended.’

*Volunteers can call 0870 242 4485 or visit www.breakthroughgenerations.org.uk