Curing cancer could be as easy as ABC
Pubs across Queensland pledged their Friday nights to fundraise for the PA Research Foundation to support breakthrough breast cancer research projects at the PA.
On Wednesday 18 August the Australian Lesiure and Hospitality goup (ALH) handed
over a remarkable fundraising effort of
$236,000 which will allow several breast
cancer projects to move forward. This
includes a very special investigation into
the ABC cancer cluster, which can now be
taken to a new level.
Dr Glenn Francis and his team are investigating
if cancer can be a virus using tissue
samples collected from the women affected
by what is now referred to as the ABC
cancer cluster.
This mystery cluster affected 16 women
from the same workplace – the majority
were young with no family history of the
disease and no environmental cause was
found for the illness.
The virus theory investigation is a controversial
idea with early results showing the
women all had the mouse mammary tumour
virus.
“We don’t know what this means and the
implications of it,” Dr Francis said.
“There are a number of differing scientific
beliefs about the significance of this.
“We now need to look more closely at these
results. Often researchers know what they
are looking for and conduct tests to see if
they are right.
“We are working in reverse, we don’t know
exactly what we are looking for so we need
to look for other things and see if we can
answer those questions.
“The funds raised by the ALH group will
now mean we can buy a specialist piece of
equipment allowing us to look more closely
at the breast cancer tissue samples we have
collected.”
PA Research Foundation Nicholas Allen
said this study was just one of the many
research projects the Foundation financially
supported.
“We are the home to the cervical cancer
vaccine so we have a proven track record
that our researchers achieve results,” Mr
Allen said.
“Sadly there are more than 6 worthy breast
cancer research projects than we can
support, but this money raised will help
us significantly with at least 3 projects. So
money raised like this is just wonderful.”
The PA Research Foundation, PA Breast
Cancer Researchers and the many breast
cancer patients and their families are grateful
to all ALH venues, staff members and
supporters who have achieved this remarkable
fundraising in just 1 month.
“We are blown away by the support
and generosity of ALH’s fundraising
achievements".
“Thank you to ALH on behalf of
everyone who will benefit from this
research today and long into the
future.” Said Mr Allen
A cancer cure is the holy grail of medical
research. Finding the cause offers a chance
to arrest it and put a stop to the staggering
incidence of cancer.
A special thank you to all ALH Groups across Queensland for your support of this important cause! 
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