About us

We Predict. We Prevent. We Protect. You could call it our mantra.

Prevent Breast Cancer is the only UK charity committed solely to predicting and preventing breast cancer.

We Predict.

By identifying who is at risk of breast cancer.

We Prevent

Offering preventative interventions, to stop breast cancer before it starts.

We Protect.

Our goal is to shield future generations from breast cancer.

Unlike many cancer charities, rather than finding a cure, we’re entirely dedicated to preventing future generations from ever being diagnosed.

‘Breast cancer is a devastating disease that affects too many people – the patients, their families, friends and colleagues. It is a disease that can often be cured if caught early and suitable treatments are prescribed. But what if there was no need for the cure? There was no diagnosis, no before or after breast cancer. What if people could live their lives safe in the knowledge that it would never happen to them.’

Lester Barr MBE

Co-Founder & Honorary President of Prevent Breast Cancer

Why we exist

Biggest cause of death in women aged 35-49

The government directs just 4.7% of its spending to prevention & early detection of all diseases (excluding Covid-19)

1 in 10 breast cancers are diagnosed late

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, despite it being a rare disease in men. Every year, over 56,800 individuals are diagnosed – that is 156 people a day. Each year we lose 11,500 to this disease. For us, that is 11,500 too many. In the UK breast cancer rates in women have increased by 24% since the 1990s. Incidence rates for breast cancer are projected to rise by in the UK between 2014 and 2035. At Prevent Breast Cancer, we believe we can stop the problem before it starts.

Our Research

Prevent Breast Cancer funds high-quality research projects that fall into four distinct pillars:

We often seed-fund new ideas researching into the prediction and prevention of breast cancer – without our original funding these research projects would not happen. Furthermore once these pilot projects have been undertaken, they can often support large grant applications to organisations such as The National Institute of Health Research.

We work closely with The Manchester Breast Centre to collaborate with world renown experts in the field. Being situated at the only Breast Cancer Prevention Centre in the UK – inside the NHS Nightingale Centre – we’re right at the front-line in the fight against the disease.

Nightingale and Genesis outside shot 16 scaled

Prevent Breast Cancer funds ground-breaking research solely aimed at the prediction and prevention of breast cancer.

Our strategies

Being situated at the only breast cancer prevention centre in the UK, we’re right at the front-line in the fight against the disease. Once we know which women are at a high risk of breast cancer, we can offer a number of strategies to reduce risk or even prevent the disease. These strategies include:

Regular screening for which we require improved technologies (over conventional mammography and MR scanning)

Lowering of lifestyle risk by interventions that are acceptable and effective; such as dietary, exercise and hormone based interventions.

“Switching off” uncontrollable factors – through research into drugs, vaccines and antibodies, which interfere with biological pathways.

Our Aims and Objectives

To identify women as high, medium or low risk through gene, lifestyle and breast density testing, and to predict which women are most susceptible to breast cancer.
To raise awareness of the disease and increase the uptake of breast screening in ethnic minority communities.
To diagnose the disease early through better and earlier detection methods and to provide more accurate breast screening tools.
To increase the frequency of screening for high-risk women.
To continue our research into the causes of breast density as a risk factor.
To undertake further research into high-risk genes and gene fragments (SNPs).
To develop preventative drugs for appropriate patients.
To offer diet and lifestyle interventions to those deemed high-risk.
To improve diagnosis and treatment of pre-cancer changes.

Our People

Our Partners

Our Work

Our Impact

National Breast Imaging Academy

The Nightingale Centre

About Prevent Breast Cancer

Prevent Breast Cancer is the only UK charity entirely dedicated to the prediction and prevention of breast cancer – we’re committed to freeing the world from the disease altogether. Unlike many cancer charities, we’re focused on preventing, rather than curing. Promoting early diagnosis, screening and lifestyle changes, we believe we can stop the problem before it starts. And being situated at the only breast cancer prevention centre in the UK, we’re right at the front-line in the fight against the disease. Join us today and help us create a future free from breast cancer. If you have any questions or concerns, email us today.