California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) Announces Major $23 Million Initiative at AACR
Researchers Sought to Significantly Advance New Understanding of Contributing Factors to Breast Cancer, Prevention Including the Environment, Disparities
April 10, 2008— Oakland, CA— The California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), the largest state-funded breast cancer research program in the nation, is seeking researchers to apply for funds under a unique $23 million initiative that aims to significantly advance an understanding of the factors that contribute to breast cancer.
“The CBCRP is a public institution with a unique commitment to all California residents to explore under investigated avenues that will not just focus on new treatment options, but get to the heart of what is causing the disease,” said CBCRP’s Director Marion H. E. Kavanaugh-Lynch M.D., M.P.H.
For the last four years, the CBCRP has convened over 300 leading experts and advocates from throughout California and across the nation to begin a different conversation. Led by the CBCRP, they have discovered three promising research areas that traditional privately and federally funded investigations have long given little attention.
The CBCRP has funding available for 10 ground-breaking research initiatives to directly address some of the trickiest questions in breast cancer research. This represents California’s first state-wide coordinated research effort in these areas.
“This is the most important thing happening in breast cancer research right now,” said Lisa Wanzor, Associate Director of Breast Cancer Action and chair of the CBCRP’s Advisory Council from 2006 – 2007. “It took a lot of time and hard work to develop this strategy, but this is a risk worth taking. This is what it means to be a leader, to do something different.”
The CBCRP initiatives will be announced on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Convention in San Diego, Calif. from April 12-16, 2008. (3:00pm-5:00pm, Room 10, San Diego Convention Center).
Areas and initiatives include:
Environmental Links to Breast Cancer
- Chemicals Policy and Breast Cancer
California is pursuing the Green Chemistry Initiative to develop a new statewide policy on chemicals to assure that chemicals used and manufactured in the state are healthy for humans and sustainable for the environment. The CBCRP will bring breast cancer issues to the forefront in this process by funding an expert working group to consider the biological pathways through which chemicals contribute to breast cancer and identify the best currently available chemical safety tests. Estimated $200,000 - Make Chemicals Testing Relevant to Breast Cancer
With advances in our understanding of breast cancer and technology, there are new tests that could give a faster, more accurate or cost-effective determination of the role of individual chemicals in breast cancer. Researchers are invited to submit proposals to develop and evaluate the most comprehensive battery of accurate, reliable, rapid, and cost-effective existing tests that can be performed on chemicals to see if they cause changes in the body that can contribute to breast cancer. Estimated $5,000,000 - Environmental Causes of Breast Cancer Across Generations
Researchers funded under this initiative will test whether exposure to certain chemicals during the course of a woman’s pregnancy may increase the risk of breast cancer for the child later in life. The researchers will carry out long-term follow-up to discover more about how chemical exposures at various stages of life contribute to a woman developing breast cancer using pre-existing samples that were collected 40 years ago. Estimated $5,000,000
Ethnic, Racial and Other Disparities In Breast Cancer Incidence and Survival
- An Integrated Approach to Understanding Behavioral, Social, and Physical Environment Factors and Breast Cancer Among Immigrants
In general, women come to the U.S. from countries with lower rates of breast cancer than the U.S. rate. The longer they live here, the more their risk rises. Their daughters who are born here are at still higher risk. Researchers will be invited to submit proposals for trans-disciplinary pilot studies to describe the changes in behavior, social and physical environment that may cause the dramatic increase in breast cancer risk that occurs as people immigrate to and remain in California. Estimated $1,680,000 - Demographic Questions for California Breast Cancer Research
Measures of population characteristics in health research are rarely standardized. Demographic questions are both necessary and useful to conceptualize and understand population group differences in health status, access to health care and survival/mortality. Researchers will be invited to submit their qualifications for convening an expert panel to identify the demographic measures that will best allow better predictions of health behaviors and outcomes among diverse populations. Estimated $400,000 - Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Stage-Specific Breast Cancer Survival
When breast tumors are diagnosed, they are often classified by stage. In general, the lower the stage of a tumor when a woman is diagnosed, the more likely she is to survive. However, women from some racial and ethnic groups are less likely to survive than women from other racial and ethnic groups diagnosed at the same stage. The CBCRP is funding a $300,000 feasibility study to determine whether the data from existing California studies can be combined in order to provide a more complete, birds-eye picture of why people from different racial and ethnic groups, who are with diagnosed with breast cancer at the same stage, have different survival outcomes. If it proves feasible to combine the studies and answer meaningful research questions, the CBCRP will provide $3.9 million for such a study.
Intersections of Multiple Factors That Impact Breast Cancer
- New Statistical Models to Address Disease Complexity
Environmental exposures—such as exposure to toxic chemicals or to radiation—can contribute to breast cancer. So can social exposures, such as living with the stress of racism or in a neighborhood where it is unsafe to go outside and exercise. Researchers will be invited to submit proposals to develop new statistical analysis strategies, using existing statistical methods, to better address how multiple environmental and social exposures across a woman's full life course may interact to affect her breast cancer risk. They will test their models on breast cancer data, which may lead to new ideas on breast cancer causation. Estimated $1,100,000 - Biological/Ecological Models of Breast Cancer Causation and Prevention
Experts will be invited to submit their qualifications for convening a diverse, interdisciplinary panel that includes social scientists, environmental scientists, and experts on disparities. This interdisciplinary project will develop a complexity-theory based model of breast cancer causation that takes into account many events over time on many levels. The resulting model will move breast cancer research away from a focus on a limited number of possible causes of breast cancer considered in isolation from each other to considering a web of relationships among many variables that contribute to causing or preventing breast cancer over the life course. Estimated $320,000 - Environmental Exposures and Breast Cancer Among a Large, Diverse Cohort of Women
The most promising of two pilot studies will be considered for full study funding to explore environmental exposures and breast cancer among a large, diverse cohort of women. The statewide California Teachers Study has several universities collaborating on a study investigating over 133,000 women who periodically provide information about their lives and biological samples (such as blood) to the study's researchers. Kaiser Permanente Northern California has initiated a study with over 200,000 women named the Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health (RPGEH) examining genetics, lifestyle factors, environmental exposures and health status. Two pilot projects will be funded at $100,000 each. Funding for a full study would be $5-6 million
More information about the Special Research Initiatives is available on the CBCRP’s website, www.CABreastCancer.org/sri/.
About the California Breast Cancer Research Program:
The mission of the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is to eliminate breast cancer by leading innovation in research, communication, and collaboration in the California scientific and lay communities.
Created by the State Legislature in 1993, the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is the largest state-funded breast cancer research program in the nation and is administered by the University of California, Office of the President. To date, the CBCRP has awarded 761 grants to 92 scientific institutions and community entities, totaling more than $181 million for research in California to prevent, treat, and cure breast cancer. Grants from the CBCRP fill gaps not traditionally funded by other research programs to jump-start new areas of investigation that push the boundaries of research and foster new collaborations. The CBCRP is funded through the voluntary tax check-off program on personal income tax form 540, a portion of the state tobacco tax, and individual contributions. For more information, call 888 313-2277, or visit www.cabreastcancer.org.
