A cure for breast cancer within twenty years? A prominent cancer researcher says it is very likely. Patients and their families heard that good news from Dr. Joyce O'Shaughnessy today at a seminar at the Cancer Centers of North Carolina.

O'Shaughnessy, who is the director of the Baylor Sammons Cancer Center, said better diagnostics for breast cancer are helping doctors target treatments for the disease down to the molecular level.

"It seems like we ought to have it all figured out in the next 20 years, it really does," she said. "In terms of all the key pathway systems, all the key circuitry, of the cells, we ought to have it figured out. And we ought to have well-developed drugs to block the various pathways."

O'Shaughnessy said continued funding for cancer research will benefit all types of cancer patients.

"For example, when we make better progess against glioblastoma, we will absolutely make additional progress against one particular type of breast cancer called Triple Negative breast cancer," she said. "And as we make more progress against prostate cancer that can spread to the bones, then we will make progress against the breast cancer that can spread to the bones."

You can hear more from Dr. O'Shaughnessy by clicking on the video link above.