FH01 Blood Collection Sub-study

The FH01 blood study is a sub-study of the FH01 evaluation of mammographic surveillance services in women under 50 with a family history of breast cancer.

FH01 is sponsored by University College London (UCL), funded by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme and co-ordinated by Breast Test Wales in collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London (QMUL). In the FH01 study, women between the ages of 40-50 with a significant family history of breast cancer attend annual mammograms in order to establish their value for detecting breast cancer in this group. This group of women are younger than the normal age range offered breast screening (50-70); as younger women are more likely to have denser breast tissue it is thought that mammograms may miss tumours and therefore their usefulness to this group is not known.

The FH01 blood study aims to ask this group of women for annual blood samples given around the time of the annual mammogram. As these women have a higher than average chance of developing breast cancer, the blood samples given will be used to test assays of blood-borne markers of early breast cancer in women who are later diagnosed with the disease.

The goal of the study is to help with the development of these assays, which may mean that women in the future can have a blood test for breast cancer alongside the mammogram screening programme. This may make it easier to detect early cancers which might otherwise be undetected by the mammogram.