Death from breast cancer is usually caused by the spread of cancer cells from the primary breast tumor to the rest of the body, a process called metastasis. The later breast cancer is detected, the greater the risk that metastatic spread has occurred. The development of new therapies against breast cancer has largely focused on the treatment of the primary tumour and not on inhibiting the growth of metastatic cells in specific organs. This is mainly due to our current lack of understanding of why breast cancer cells thrive in the microenvironment of certain organs, e.g. bone. Dr. Dedhar and his team propose to create new experimental models using laboratory-grown cancer cells and genetically modified mice, and to develop new imaging and gene and protein analysis technologies. This will enable them to identify and characterize genes and proteins that are crucial for the growth of breast cancer metastases in different organs. The program is designed to generate synergistic interaction amongst the team members resulting in the accelarated development of novel therapies specifically targeted against metastases and the identification of new tools for diagnosis and more accurate prognosis of metastatic breast cancer.