Breast International Group

About Us

The Breast International Group (BIG) is an international not-for-profit organisation for academic breast cancer research groups from around the world, based in Brussels, Belgium. Global collaboration is crucial to make significant advances in breast cancer research, reduce unnecessary duplication of effort, share data, contribute to the faster development of better treatments, and increase the likelihood of cures for patients. Therefore, BIG facilitates breast cancer research at international level, by stimulating cooperation between its members and other academic networks, and collaborating with, but working independently from, the pharmaceutical industry. Founded by leading European opinion leaders in 1999, BIG now constitutes a network of 57 collaborative groups from Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia and Australasia. These entities are tied to several thousand specialised hospitals and research centres worldwide. More than 30 clinical trials are run or are under development under the BIG umbrella at any one time. BIG also works closely with the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the North American Breast Cancer Groups (NABCG), so that together they act as a strong integrating force in the breast cancer research arena.

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OlympiA needed an organisation with the networks and coordinating experience of BIG to bring together the partners and all the researchers required to identify a pool of patients with inherited mutations in the BRCA1/2 genes that was large enough to find the numbers of patients needed for the study

David Cameron, Chair of the Breast International Group, OlympiA co-principal investigator, and Professor of Oncology at Edinburgh University, UK

Recruiting almost 6,000 patients in 21 countries in three years is an achievement that speaks for itself. For sure, we had hoped for another adjuvant breakthrough for patients with luminal breast cancer when we started this huge enterprise. However, it is science, not religion - we learn at least as much from “negative” trial results as we do from outrightly “positive” trials.

Professor Michael Gnant, co-Principal Investigator of the study and President of ABCSG.

Thanks to the strong support and powerful momentum of our global team of BIG researchers to conduct this large-scale global academic study without commercial sponsorship, we were able to complete recruitment of participants a full two years ahead of schedule. This outstanding achievement shows that research on DCIS is a high priority for many patients and researchers to deliver the high-level evidence necessary and improve patient outcomes.

Professor Boon Chua, M.D., PhD, Principal Investigator of the DCIS study, Director of Cancer and Haematology Services at UNSW (University of New South Wales) and Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

With more and more ‘weapons’ targeting the Achille’s heel of this cancer – namely the HER2 receptor –, it makes sense to cautiously simplify chemotherapy, which causes most of the treatment side effects… and this is the goal pursued by DECRESCENDO

Dr Martine Piccart, Co-Principal Investigator of the study, Scientific Director at the Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium, Co-founder of the Breast International Group and President of BIG against breast cancer.

I think DECRESCENDO may be a practice-changing study. If our hypothesis is correct, we will significantly reduce the incidence of potentially serious side effects due to chemotherapy, such as heart failure. At the same time, patients will receive a treatment that is as effective as current standards, but almost entirely targeted against the biological weaknesses of the cancer, thus avoiding much of the toxicity often associated with chemo drugs

Dr Gabriele Zoppoli, Co-Principal Investigator of the study and Assistant Medical Director at the Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genova, Italy, and Member of the Board of Directors, Gruppo Oncologico Italiano di Ricerca Clinica (GOIRC)

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Common diabetes drug not effective against early-stage breast cancer, landmark trial reveals

Tue, Dec 07, 2021 15:05 CET

TORONTO (Dec. 7, 2021) – A widely used and inexpensive Type 2 diabetes drug, once hoped to hold enormous promise in treating breast cancer, does not prevent or stop the spread of the most common forms of the disease, according to new findings.The landmark trial, led by Dr. Pamela Goodwin at Sinai Health and run by the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) under the umbrella of the Breast International Group (BIG) network, is the largest of its kind to date, tracking more than 3,600 breast cancer patients from across Canada, the U.S., Switzerland and the U.K. The randomized, double-blind

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Common diabetes drug not effective against early-stage breast cancer, landmark trial reveals