Introduction

The California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is pleased to announce the funding of 59 new research grants that will advance our knowledge about the community impact, biology, detection, and treatment of breast cancer. With these new awards we are investing over $16 million for research projects being performed at 22 institutions across the state.

The CBCRP supports breast cancer research in California from funds obtained through:

The CBCRP is administered by the University of California, Office of the President, in Oakland. Our overall objectives, strategies, and priorities are developed with the assistance of a volunteer advisory council, which sets program priorities and recommends the grants to be funded. The council consists of 16 members: five are representatives of breast cancer survivor/advocacy groups; five are scientists/clinicians; two are members from nonprofit health organizations, one is a practicing breast cancer medical specialist, two are members from private industry, and one is an ex officio member from the California Department of Health Services breast cancer early detection program, “Every Woman Counts.”

The full abstracts of these newly funded grants, as well as those from previous CBCRP funding cycles, can be found on our website: www.CABreastCancer.org

Special Research Initiatives

In 2005, the CBCRP launched its Special Research Initiatives (SRI). This multi-million dollar effort has identified and is pursuing research strategies that increase knowledge about and create solutions to both the environmental causes of breast cancer and the unequal burden of the disease. Through the SRI, we are leveraging California's unique and diverse geographic, population, and research resources to support critical studies that significantly move these fields forward.

From 2005-2008, an external Steering Committee guided the SRI's five-phase strategy development plan to identify and address critical environmental and disparities research topics. In 2007 the CBCRP hosted six stakeholder meetings across California to present results of our review of the science and receive public input on what research topics to pursue. Next, working closely with the SRI Steering Committee and California Breast Cancer Research Program staff, the Strategy Team provided the guidance and expertise to focus the topics and develop the research initiatives.

The CBCRP is funding nine ground-breaking research initiatives to directly address some of the most difficult questions in breast cancer research. This represents California’s first state-wide, coordinated research effort to address the gaps in knowledge about disparities in breast cancer and the role of the environment in breast cancer. The following broad areas will be investigated:

The CBCRP has been reserving 30% of annual research funds for the SRI since 2005. The funding initiated in 2009 represents the initial investment in the planned multi-million dollar effort.

SRI Award Typess and Review

In 2008-2009, we released the first calls for applications for this carefully planned, multi-million dollar effort. SRI uses three award mechanisms:

Calls for applications and requests for qualifications for these one-time research opportunities were sent out to researchers across the state and special effort were made to include potential applicants in these areas that have not traditionally been funded by the CBCRP. As shown in Table 1 (below), 24 applications resulted in 14 SRI awards. 

Additional SRI initiatives will be funded in 2009-2010. Further details on the SRI program can be found on the CBCRP’s website (www.CABreastCancer.org).

The submitted RFPs and RFQs were reviewed and scored for scientific merit by out-of-state external reviewers to minimize possible conflicts of interest, and the final funding recommendations were made by CBCRP’s advisory council. In cases where a single application was submitted, careful attention was paid to ensure that the proposal met the goals of the initiative and truly merited funding. The Program Directed Awards were recommended to the CBCRP by the SRI Steering Committee and were programmatically reviewed by the advisory council.

SRI Funding Summary

In our first year of funding, SRI awarded 14 grants for a total of $7,341,849. Table 1 summarizes those awards, including the CBCRP research priority addressed by each. Most of the successful applications fall into the Community Impact (eight grants for $1,193,160) or Etiology and Prevention priority issues five grants for $5,989,355), although several investigate topics in both disparities and the environment and therefore could fit into either issue.

Table 1. 2009 SRI award types, priority issues, application submissions and grants by initiative

Initiative

Award Type

Priority Issue

Applications

Grants
Funded

Amount Funded

Chemicals Policy and Breast Cancer

RFQ

Community Impact (Health Policy)

1

1

$159,334

Demographic Questions for California Breast Cancer Research

RFQ

Community Impact (Disparities)

3

1

$430,988

Understanding Racial and Ethnic Differences in Stage-Specific Breast Cancer Survival

RFQ

Community Impact (Disparities)

6

6

$319,541

Biological/Ecological Models of Breast Cancer Causation and Prevention

RFQ

Etiology (& Prevention)

4

1

$229,732

Environmental Causes of Breast Cancer Across Generations

PDA

Etiology (& Prevention)

1

1

$5,000,000

Environmental Exposures and Breast Cancer Among a Large, Diverse Cohort of Women

PDA

Etiology (& Prevention)

1

1

$132,203

New Statistical Models to Address Disease Complexity (Total = $1,070,051)

RFP

Etiology & Prevention

3

2

$627,420

Community Impact (Disparities)

2

1

$442,631

Detection, Prognosis & Treatment

3

0

0

Totals

 

 

24

14

$7,341,849

Avon Breast Cancer Crusade - home Seven of the newly funded SRI grants were partially supported by a generous $500,000 gift from the Avon Foundation for Women.

Core Funding Overview and Award Types

The Core Funding program of the CBCRP offers a variety of awards in broad topic areas, within which researchers can propose their own best ideas for advancing breast cancer research. The development of the priority areas and mechanisms in the Core Funding is modified during the advisory council’s priority-setting process.

The main focus areas of the CBCRP’s Core Funding are to support:

Core Funding award types include:

Core Funding Submissions & Review

We received 168 submissions in response to our 2009 Call for Applications for new research grants on breast cancer. They were evaluated, discussed in review committee meetings, and rated for scientific merit by our out-of-state peer reviewers. Joining Forces Conference Award applications were reviewed by our advisory council.

The final tally of application submissions by CBCRP priority issues (i.e., invited research topics) and award types is shown below.

Table 2. 2009 Core Funding application submissions by award type and priority issue (research topic)


Award Type
↓

Priority Issue

Award Type
Totals

Etiology & Prevention

Community Impact

Detection, Prognosis & Treatment

Biology of the Breast Cell

Postdoctoral Fellowship

1

1

19

19

40

Dissertation

2

1

6

7

16

Innovative, Developmental & Exploratory (IDEA)

9

6

48

33

96

IDEA-competitive renewal

0

0

2

2

4

Translational

1

2

3

0

6

Community Research Collaboration (CRC)

0

4

0

0

4

Joining Forces Conference

1

0

1

0

2

Priority Totals

14

14

79

61

168

Compared to the previous year (2008/Cycle 14), we received approximately 15 percent fewer applications. The main reasons for reduced application volume were: (1) stricter eligibility requirements for dissertation awards and postdoctoral fellowships, and (2) a severe drop in the volume of community research collaboration awards. However, IDEA applications increased by almost 20% in 2009. In terms of CBCRP priority issues (i.e., broad research topic), 83% of our submissions were in the topics of Detection, Prognosis & Treatment and Biology of the Breast Cell.

The CBCRP made several changes to the review process in 2009 to reduce costs and increase efficiency. First, we initiated a triage process to reduce the number of applications receiving a full review committee discussion. This resulted in 96 (58%) applications being fully discussed in committee. Next, we eliminated the tertiary level of scientific review for most award types. Finally, we reduced the number of review committees from six in 2008 to four in 2009, and limited the meetings to one-day sessions. Taken together, these and other cost-cutting measures reduced the approximately $450,000 spent for peer review in 2008 to about $125,000 this year.

Finally, the 96 fully-reviewed applications were evaluated for programmatic responsiveness by the CBCRP’s 16 member advisory council. There are seven programmatic criteria for each award type. To select applications to recommend for funding, the CBCRP advisory council balanced the scientific merit and programmatic ratings. All funded applications represent projects of high scientific merit that also address the priorities of the Program.

Core Funding Summary

Applications offered and accepting funding = 45
Applications offered funding, but declined = 4
Overall success rate (45/168) = 27%
Amount awarded in 2009 = $8,680,237

The two tables below summarize the 2009 Core Funding grant distribution by award type and priority issue.

Table 3. 2009 Core Funding portfolio distribution by award type

Award Type

Number of Applications

Grants Funded (Success Rate)

Amount Awarded

Percentage of Total Funding

Dissertation

16

9 (56%)

$680,245

7.8%

Postdoctoral Fellowship

40

9 (22.5%)

$809,996

9.3%

IDEA

96

19 (20%)

$3,901,192

44.9%

IDEA-Competitive Renewal

4

2 (50%)

$608,000

7.0%

Translational

6

2 (33%)

$1,958,190

22.6%

Community Research Collaboration (CRC)

4

2 (50%)

$672,614

7.7%

Joining Forces Conference

2

2 (100%)

$50,000

0.6%

Table 4. 2009 Core Funding portfolio distribution by priority issue

Priority Issue

Number of Applications

Grants Funded (Success Rate)

Amount Awarded

Percentage of Total Funding

Community Impact

14

7 (50%)

$1,335,139

15.4%

Etiology & Prevention

14

3 (21%)

$1,983,190

22.8%

Biology of the Breast Cell

61

20 (33%)

$3,139,596

36.2%

Detection, Prognosis & Treatment

79

15 (19%)

$2,222,312

25.6%

Comparing the 2009 and 2008 portfolios reveals a number of changes. First, due primarily to cost reductions in the review process, we were able to award nearly $600,000 more in new funding this year. Thus, the number of grants increased from 42 in 2008 to 45 in 2009, and the success rate increased from 21% (2008) to 27% this year. Funding for IDEA grants increased the most (over 75%), addressing one of CBCRP’s main programmatic goals to support research innovation. IDEAs and IDEA renewals represented over 50% of our total funding. Our support for translational research and career development topics remained about the same. However, community collaboration grant funding decreased dramatically (over 67%) due to the substantially lower number of CRC applications submitted.

In terms of research topics (priority issues), the basic science areas of Detection, Prognosis & Treatment and Biology of the Breast Cell received almost two-thirds of the 2009 Core Funding. The numbers of applications and funded grants in the Etiology & Prevention and Community Impact topics continue to decline, however this is offset by awards in these areas made under the SRI. The number of dollars spent is also balanced by the translational awards, both of which were funded in the Prevention topic.

tax checkoffThree awards are of special interest, and are supported by revenue received from the voluntary California State Income Tax Check-off. They are a postdoctoral award to Yani Lu at the Beckman Research Institute of the City of Hope to investigate risk factors and breast cancer survival in African American and White women; a postdoctoral award to Karin Staflin of the Scripps Research Institute to investigate a new target for treating brain metastasis; and an IDEA award to Arash Naeim at the University of California, Los Angeles to investigate the effect of health literacy on breast cancer treatment in older patients.

Faith Fancher Faith Fancher Research Award
Faith Fancher was a long-time television news anchor and personality with KTVU (Oakland) who waged a very public battle against breast cancer. She also was the founding member of the CBCRP Executive Team, which formed in 2001 to help raise the visibility and fundraising profile of our program. Faith passed away in October 2003 after a six-year struggle with breast cancer. In Faith's honor, and to commemorate all that she did for breast cancer education and research, we have created this annual award. The selected grant reflects the values that Faith held most closely and extends the work that Faith did for all women facing breast cancer.

The recipients of the 2009 Faith Fancher Research Award are Anna Nápoles-Springer (University of California, San Francisco) and Carmen Ortiz (Círculo de Vida) for their community collaborative project, Nuevo Amanecer: Promoting the Psychosocial Health of Latinas. This project addresses the issue of culturally and linguistically appropriate support services for Latinas diagnosed with breast cancer. This collaboration will develop a community-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for newly diagnosed Spanish-speaking Latinas with breast cancer. The 12-week intervention (Nuevo Amanecer—A New Dawn) will be adapted from an evidence-based intervention for non-Latinas. The three-year program will be delivered by trained peers (Latina breast cancer survivors) in convenient community settings, through the Círculo de Vida group in San Francisco’s Mission District.