New plaque marks partnership to fight breast cancer

A plaque to mark a historic partnership between Breast Cancer Campaign and the University of Leeds, which is leading the fight against breast cancer, was unveiled in Leeds on Monday (November 10). The plaque, at the Wellcome Trust Brenner Building at St James’s University Hospital, was unveiled by V Craig Jordan, a University of Leeds alumnus who developed Tamoxifen, formerly a contraceptive, into a drug to fight breast cancer. Professor Jordan had given the Annual Alumni Lecture 2014 on 25 October, entitled ' Unlikely Action, unexpected consequences - Leeds’ role in breast cancer breakthrough – the Tamoxifen tale '. The University of Leeds is the coordinating centre for the Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank, the first initiative of its kind in the UK. Tissue banking in the UK actually began in Yorkshire in the early 1950s, as a collaboration between the University and Leeds General Infirmary. The revolutionary Breast Cancer Campaign Tissue Bank is a unique national resource for researchers in the UK and Ireland, to collect and store tissue samples safely and consistently. Tissue samples donated by patients from across the UK are made available to scientists to study how and why breast cancer develops and spreads, and to devise the best possible treatments.