CBCRP Asks the Public to Brainstorm Ideas for Special Research Initiatives
If you had $18 million, which research would you fund?
Judy MacLean, CBCRP Consultant
- Develop a multi-ethnic research cohort of women and study their past and current toxic exposures in relation to who is diagnosed with breast cancer over time.
- Find out whether women employed as cleaners and housekeepers have higher breast cancer rates caused by exposure to cleaning products.
- Do research in a way that’s convincingly clear to corporate and government policy makers that things that are bad for our health need to be changed.
These are some of the ideas interested members of the public gave the CBCRP in answer to the question, “If you had $18 million, which research would you fund?” The ideas came at six Stakeholder Meetings in late March and early April, as part of the planning process for the CBCRP’s Special Research Initiatives. This $18 million effort will investigate two intertwined questions:
- What role does the environment play in breast cancer?
- Why do some groups of women bear a greater burden of this disease?
The CBCRP’s vision is to support research that not only increases scientific knowledge about these two questions, but also creates solutions Continued on page 4 If you had $18 million, which research would you fund? CBCRP Asks the Public to Brainstorm Ideas for Special Research Initiatives that will prevent this disease and decrease the suffering caused by breast cancer. Participants in the Stakeholder Meetings were asked to brainstorm ideas that could lead to a coordinated statewide effort—taking advantage of California’s geographic variation, ethnic diversity, and many research institutions—to significantly move breast cancer research forward.
The meetings were held in Ukiah, Fresno, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Two teleconferences provided further opportunities for input. Almost 200 people attended the six meetings, including breast cancer survivors and advocates, environmental activists, research scientists, staff from community- based organizations and government agencies, physicians and other health care professionals, and students. Participants first saw a slide presentation highlighting previous research into the role of the environment in breast cancer and the reasons why some groups of women bear a greater burden of the disease. This slide presentation can be viewed at www.CABreastCancer.org/sri/reports/.
All the ideas suggested at the Stakeholder Meetings, plus ideas submitted online via the CBCRP’s website, are being collected and synthesized by the CBCRP staff and the Special Research Initiatives Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is a group of nationally prominent leaders with expertise on the questions being studied under the Special Research Initiatives. Meeting participants and those who submitted online are being invited to rate the ideas for impact and feasibility.
Next, the ideas go to the Special Research Initiatives Strategy Team. This is a panel of experts from across the nation who will use the ideas, and other information collected by the CBCRP, to develop promising strategies for the Special Research Initiatives. For more on the Strategy Team and Steering Committee, see www.CABreastCancer.org/sri/advisors.
In the final step, the CBCRP’s highest decision-making body, the California Breast Cancer Research Council, will choose the research to be funded.
Some of the other ideas suggested at the Stakeholder Meetings included:
- Develop better biomarkers to measure past exposure to toxic chemicals that don’t stay in the body.
- Find out whether rural women’s lower rates of breast cancer compared to urban women are due to rural women being exposed to less light at night.
- Improve data in the California Cancer Registry, or hold in-depth interviews, to get information about occupations and early childhood toxic exposures of women diagnosed with breast cancer
- Investigate how to get policy
makers to adopt the precautionary
principle, requiring chemicals and
products to be proven safe before
they are used
- Study immigrant populations with low rates of breast cancer
More ideas can be viewed at: www.CABreastCancer.org/sri/reports.
Many thanks to the organizations and institutions co-sponsoring the Stakeholder Meetings: Breast Cancer Action, Breast Cancer Fund, California Black Women’s Health Project, California Health Collaborative, Cancer Resource Center of Mendocino, Commonweal, Health Education Council, Physicians for Social Responsibility–Los Angeles, Physicians for Social Responsibility–San Francisco Bay Area Chapter, UC AAPI Policy Initiative, UC Davis Cancer Center, UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health, Zero Breast Cancer.
