The breast oncology section (also including section for breast and endocrine surgery) has extensive research activity with a number of ongoing researcher-initiated studies. The aim is to contribute to developing new therapeutic strategies for both early breast cancer and metastatic breast cancer. This includes a focus on different treatment modalities in breast cancer, their effects and side effects, as well as clinically relevant diagnostic improvements. In addition, participation in international multi-centre studies is important, both to increase cooperation with international groups/researchers and to ensure experience with new drugs in early phases.

Our ongoing and future research activities have focus on how to further individualize breast cancer treatment, aiming at higher efficacy by better refinement of subgroups sensitive to a certain treatment, identification of new therapeutic targets and/or improved knowledge of optimal treatment of established therapeutic targets. Also, studies for better selection of patients who do not need systemic adjuvant treatment, as well as those who need alternative treatment strategies because of insufficiency of standard treatment approaches, – have high priority. Consequently, we focus on translational research, which includes an important and close collaboration with several research groups.

Outside Oslo University Hospital, we collaborate with a large number of hospitals in Norway (ongoing multi-centre clinical trials) and NTNU, Trondheim (OSLO2 study). Internationally, we have ongoing collaboration with: UK (UCL/Rob Stein, OPTIMA study), Sahlgrenska university hospital (OTIMA study and TAORMINA), Aarhus university hospital (NATURAL study), Lund University (OSLO2 study and SCAN-B study), Skåne University Hospital (T-REX trial: not started yet), Karoliska Institutet (ARIADNE study: not started yet), IBSCG/ALLIANCE/NCIC/BIG (The POSITIVE study), Mount Sinai New York (translational), Welcome Trust Sanger Institute (translational), University of California San Francisco (translational), Oregon Health Science University (translational).