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Announced at the 2017 Lawson Impact Awards, Drs. Muriel Brackstone and Gregor Reid were recipients of Lawson’s annual Strategic Research Fund (SRF) competition. Their project, “Re-setting the breast microbiome to lower inflammation and risk of cancer,” will examine whether taking an oral probiotic can reduce inflammation and lower the risk of breast cancer.

One in nine Canadian women will develop breast cancer during her lifetime (Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation). Many cancers are considered to be the result of inflammatory processes. While inflammation has been a focus of research in breast cancer, the role of bacteria has not.

Recently, Drs. Reid and Brackstone were collaborators on a study that was the first to describe the breast microbiome, proving the existence of bacteria in human breast tissue. Led by Dr. Reid and his former PhD student, Dr. Camilla Urbaniak, further research demonstrated that the types of bacteria found in women with breast cancer differ significantly from those found in healthy tissue.

One bacterial species from the cancerous tissue, Escherichia coli (E. coli), is capable of producing low amounts of substances known to cause cancer and induce inflammation, while the bacteria found in healthy tissue, like Lactobacillus, are known to interfere with cancer processes.

“The question is whether we can manipulate this to essentially get rid of more harmful bacteria and replace them with beneficial ones like Lactobacillus,” says Dr. Reid, a Lawson scientist and Director of the Canadian Centre for Human Microbiome and Probiotic Research.

In this new study, Dr. Brackstone and Dr. Reid will join forces to test their theory that taking an oral probiotic lactobacilli will lead to these organisms reaching the breast tissue, displacing harmful bacteria and reducing inflammation.

Drs. Brackstone and Reid will compare bacteria from the breast tissues of women at risk for breast cancer who are taking the probiotic against those at risk who are taking a placebo. They will also compare to the breast tissue of healthy women who are not at risk. The research participants will provide nipple and needle aspirates for their bacteria to be analyzed both at the beginning of the study and after three months of either taking the probiotic or a placebo. The samples will also be tested for inflammatory compounds, levels of heavy metals and pesticides that may influence cancer risk.

“I think this study will shed light into what actually occurs in the milk ducts where most breast cancers originate,” says Dr. Brackstone, a Lawson scientist, surgical oncologist and medical director for the London Breast Care Clinic. “If successful, this project could lead to larger studies and contribute to a new way of approaching breast cancer management.”

Now in its third year, Lawson’s Strategic Research Fund (SRF) supports research projects that will advance science in alignment with Lawson’s strategic research goals, as outlined in Lawson’s 2014-2018 Strategic Plan. This year’s competition once again focused on “inflammation”. Chosen projects received $50,000 over a two-year period.

Learn more about this research project:

Sarah Best, research manager at Lawson Health Research Institute, was a recipient of this year’s Staff Award of Excellence, presented at the 2018 Lawson Impact Awards. The award was created to honour the contributions of dynamic, hardworking staff members who help advance science at Lawson.

Best is a part of the Cognitive Clinical Research Group at St. Joseph’s Heath Care London’s Parkwood Institute. In addition to managing the research group’s staff and trainees, she has a wide range of responsibilities, including developing strategies for recruitment and retention of clinical trial participants, budgeting, assisting with grant applications, and ensuring the team has the appropriate space, hardware and training to complete their research. 

“Sarah has grown a team of skilled, well-trained staff and her leadership has ultimately resulted in an increase in the volume and complexity of trials we can offer for patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease,” says Dr. Michael Borrie, Lawson researcher and medical director of the Cognitive Clinical Research Group. 

Best is also the budget officer for the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research and a member of the platform implementation team for the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration and Aging (CCNA). The CCNA was formed by more than 350 clinicians and researchers throughout Canada to accelerate progress in age-related neurodegenerative disease research. 

The Comprehensive Assessment of Neurodegeneration and Dementia (COMPASS-ND) Study is a CCNA study collecting clinical, neuropsychological, and MRI imaging data as well as blood, saliva, and urine samples from participants to learn about who is at risk of developing dementia, to determine how early dementia can be detected and to find out what tests are most effective at detecting dementia. Best has helped facilitate the study start-up and patient recruitment for the more than 30 sites involved in COMPASS-ND, including Parkwood Institute.

“Working in the field of neurodegeneration is really important right now as we see the numbers of individuals that have cognitive impairment growing exponentially. Currently, we only have symptomatic treatments so we’re really looking to find that breakthrough that will lead to a disease-modifying treatment to better serve patients and actually change the course of their disease,” says Best.

She adds, “I’m really honoured to receive this award, especially knowing the previous recipients and the impact that they've had on the London research community.”