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Breast Cancer Risk: Facts, Fictions and the Future (Symposium, London, 3rd July 2014)

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By CentreForMedicalHumanities.org Research Team | Last verified: September 2026

Research Summary: Breast Cancer Risk Symposium

Event Type: Educational symposium on breast cancer risk factors and genetics
Key Topics: Male breast cancer risk, myths versus evidence-based risk factors, epigenetics in cancer prediction and prevention
Date & Location: 3 July 2014, 6:30pm, University College London
Organizers: Progress Educational Trust (supported by Wellcome Trust)
Panel Expertise: Medical genetics, cancer epidemiology, surgical oncology, public health, and patient perspectives
Attendance: Free with advance booking required; RSVP to [email protected]
Focus Areas: Examines evidence-based facts about breast cancer risk, addresses common misconceptions regarding dietary and lifestyle factors, and explores epigenetic mechanisms linking genetic and environmental influences across generations

You are invited to attend the Progress Educational Trust event ‘Breast Cancer Risk: Facts, Fictions And The Future’ – supported by the Wellcome Trust and taking place at University College London at 6.30pm on Thursday evening next week (3 July).

Attendance is FREE, but advance booking is required. To reserve your place, RSVP by emailing [email protected]

This event will conclude and draw lessons from the ‘Breast Cancer: Chances, Choices And Genetics’ project that the Progress Educational Trust has been running since the beginning of this year. The event will focus on three areas suggested by attendees at earlier events in the series:

– Facts about men and breast cancer

Men can get breast cancer (for example Australian politician Nick Greiner, who recently had a mastectomy) and men can also carry mutations in breast cancer risk genes (such as BRCA1 and BRCA2) that may then be inherited by their daughters, or indeed their sons.

– Fictions about breast cancer risk

From abortion to aerosols, from breastfeeding to broccoli, from contraception to coffee, a bewildering number of factors are claimed by some to increase or decrease a person’s risk of breast cancer. How are patients and their families to make sense of it all?

– The future of breast cancer, particularly Epigenetics

Epigenetics can help us understand the relationship between genes and environment, within generations and potentially also across generations. How might epigenetics be useful in predicting, preventing or treating breast cancer?

These three areas will be discussed by a panel including:

– Gareth Evans (Professor of Medical Genetics and Cancer Epidemiology at the University of Manchester)

– Dr James Flanagan (Research Fellow at Imperial College London’s Department of Surgery and Cancer)

– Eluned Hughes (Head of Public Health at Breakthrough Breast Cancer)

– Fay Schopen (journalist and former patient)

If you should like to attend, all you need to do is RSVP by emailing [email protected]

 

 

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