Medical researchers hope to uncover clues to the causes of breast cancer in a study of the cluster of 15 women diagnosed with the disease among the ABC's Brisbane staff.

The women, all diagnosed since the mid-1990s, worked at the national broadcaster's Toowong studios, abandoned after an independent report found its breast cancer rate was up to 11 times higher than normal.

But the cause remains a mystery.

The latest victim, mother-of-four Angie Eckersley, 40, underwent surgery last week, and her diagnosis came two years after she left the broadcaster following a seven-year stint on the production desk.

Princess Alexandra Hospital director of pathology Glenn Francis, one of a group of scientists asking the 15 women to participate in the study, said the situation presented an opportunity to discover if the tumours were related and possibly their cause.

He said there was also the potential for the study to uncover information that would help the fight against breast cancer.

"It has the potential ... but there's no guarantee a positive impact on any other patients would emerge," he said.

"But we always look for that."

Dr Francis said the study would involve analysing and comparing tissue samples.

"The aim is to look at the tumour tissue itself and identify anything that is common between those tumours," he said.

"We also have information on breast cancers that occur in Queensland so we can compare the information from that particular cluster of tumours, in that group of patients, with what you would normally expect from other patients."

He said the group would try to determine possible causes, by looking for two viruses possibly associated with breast cancer - human papilloma virus and mouse mammary tumour virus.

Dr Francis said he was spurred to investigate the cluster following comments in the media by former news presenter and breast cancer victim Lisa Backhouse, 38.

"Where are the breast cancer researchers in this country? Why aren't they pounding down our doors? Why aren't they studying us? Why aren't they looking and searching and learning from our situation?" she told reporters last week.