CBCRP Symposium — A Decade of Progress

Diana Chingos, CBCRP Advisory Council

The California Breast Cancer Research Program hosted its biennial symposium in San Diego September 13–15, 2003, commemorating the Program's tenth anniversary. The symposium, From Research to Action—A Decade of Progress, brought together the best of California's leaders in breast cancer science and policy and acknowledged the contribution of Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman in creating the bill that established the Program.

Save the Date!

California Breast Cancer Research Symposium
September 9–11, 2005
Sacramento Convention Center and Hyatt Regency at Capitol Park

The Cornelius L. Hopper Poster Awards were designed to acknowledge investigators whose poster presentations excelled in three areas that are highly valued by the CBCRP: potential impact on breast cancer, research innovation, and best presentation for a lay audience. The following poster award winners were selected by the California Breast Cancer Research Council.

Poster winners:

Most Innovation

End Sequence Profi ling (ESP): A Sequence Based Approach to Structural Analysis of Tumor Genomes
Colin Collins
University of California, San Francisco

Most Impact

Increasing Community Awareness of Clinical Trials: A Collaborative Approach
Kathleen Brown, M.D.
Patricia Ganz, M.D.
University of California, Los Angeles
Presenter: Melissa Farmer

Best Presentation to a Lay Audience

Breast CT: System Design and Evaluation
John Boone, Ph.D.
Karen K. Lindfors, M.D.
University of California, Davis
Presenter: Thomas Nelson

The CBCRP's mission is to fund re- search about and by Californians. The symposium is the CBCRP's major scientifi c and public outreach effort. It provides an opportunity for our funded researchers to share their fi ndings with other researchers and a chance for patients and community members to learn about the latest breast cancer research developments funded through the Program. All members of the public are invited to attend and observe presentations about the research, and a town hall meeting is held to provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to voice their views and concerns in a public forum.

The 2003 symposium hosted poster sessions on a variety of topics ranging from basic science mechanisms to lifestyle factors associated with breast cancer risk and prevention. Breast cancer advocates were present in multitudes, including advocateguides who have served as members of the CBCRP's scientific peer review process and led the general public through the scientific poster presentations. Artists contributed powerful works that emphasized the pressing need for researching the disease.

The plenary session of the symposium featured a panel discussion by Julia Brody of the Silent Spring Institute, Marion Moses of the Pesticide Education Center, John Peterson Myers of the United Nations Foundation and Commonweal, Peggy Reynolds of the California Department of Health Service, and was moderated by former Council Member and breast surgeon, Dr. Ellen Mahoney. This group of distinguished environmental experts explored the state of the evidence on environmental factors relating to breast cancer and gave researchers, advocates, and the public a framework for addressing the question in their laboratories, in the fi eld, and in their own lives.

You can learn more about the From Research to Action—A Decade of Progress symposium on our Web site.

The next symposium is set for September 9–11, 2005, at the Sacramento Convention Center and Hyatt Regency at Capitol Park.

We look forward to seeing you there.