While dedicated research over many decades has led to significant improvements in the detection and treatment of breast cancer, over 20,000 Australians continue to be diagnosed with the disease every year, leading to over 3,100 deaths annually.

For more than two decades Prof Visvader and Prof Lindeman, joint heads of the ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells Division at WEHI, have sought to improve these outcomes, making crucial discoveries into healthy breast development and how errors in this process can lead to cancer.

Prof Visvader said that she and Prof Lindeman were thrilled to be jointly awarded the prestigious Buchanan Medal and to join the list of medical science luminaries that are previous recipients.

“Lives continue to be cut short by breast cancer. This award will help us highlight some of the progress that is being made, but also to advocate for the ongoing need to support fundamental laboratory research, which will be essential for delivering improved outcomes for the next generation,” said Prof Visvader.

“Science is very much a ‘team sport’, and this award really recognises a stellar team of devoted scientists and colleagues and patient advocates that we have been fortunate to work with over the last 25 years.”

Prof Lindeman said the team’s findings are being used to inform new treatments and prevention strategies for women at high risk of breast cancer.

“New technologies, coupled with the development of new drugs, promise to advance our understanding of breast cancer further and should lead to more refined, personalised approaches to therapy,” said Prof Lindeman, who is also a medical oncologist at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Royal Melbourne Hospital.

“This is likely to improve outcomes for breast cancer patients and their families – a future we can look to with hope and optimism.”

Most breast cancers arise spontaneously, however approximately five per cent of breast cancers in Australia are hereditary; caused by an inherited mutation in genes that include BRCA1 and BRCA2.

Women who carry a faulty BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are at high risk of developing aggressive breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Many women with these gene mutations choose surgical removal of their breast tissue (mastectomy) and ovaries, to reduce their chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer.

Uncovering the cells that give rise to cancer in these high-risk women has been a leading focus of Prof Visvader and Prof Lindeman’s work.

WEHI director Professor Ken Smith said recognition from the Royal Society, the world’s longest continuing scientific academy, was thoroughly deserved.

“Professor Visvader and Professor Lindeman have led exceptional research at the institute for more than 25 years that has uncovered pathways for preventing and treating breast cancer, the most common cancer in women worldwide,” said Prof Smith.

“Collaborative and creative, their research partnership is one that I have no doubt will continue to reap rewards for generations, as future technologies and treatments are developed off the back of their groundbreaking discoveries.”

In 2006 Prof Visvader and Prof Lindeman led a team that discovered breast stem cells, the seeds from which breast tissue grows. It was a eureka moment that opened up exploration of different types of breast cancer, and the ways they could be controlled.

These stem cells and their ‘daughter’ progenitor cells can live for a long time and are capable of renewing, meaning damage to their genetic code could lead to breast cancer decades later.

In 2009 Prof Visvader and Prof Lindeman’s team found that stem cell ‘daughters’ were the likely ‘cells-of-origin’ of breast cancer in women carrying a BRCA1 mutation. Subsequent findings by their team and other groups in 2016 led to an international breast cancer prevention study (BRCA-P) that aims to prevent breast cancer in women carrying the genetic mutation. In 2024 their team uncovered the likely source cells for cancer in BRCA2 mutation carriers.

The award is the latest recognition for the talented pair. Prof Visvader is a Fellow of the Royal Society (2020), the Australian Academy of Science (2012), the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2016), and the American Association of Cancer Research Academy (2022). Prof Lindeman is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015) and Australian Academy of Science (2016).

The Buchanan Medal will be formally awarded at an event in London on 29 November 2024.