Toward More and Faster Progress Against Breast Cancer
Although the California Breast Cancer Research Program concentrates on research to speed progress against the disease, we don’t have enough funds to do all that needs to be done. Our Community Partners Program provides a way for Californians to come together to provide more funding for breast cancer research. Our Community Partners’ first priority is to generate funds to replace the drop in our revenue from the state tax on tobacco, which is going down every year. But if we could also increase the available funds, we could make faster progress against the disease by initiating the following research:
• Clinical Trials. In a clinical trial, some patients receive a promising new therapy and the outcome is compared to a group receiving standard therapy. Clinical trials are the way science discovers which treatments work. Currently, almost every child with cancer in the US is treated through a clinical trial, compared to 3 percent of women with breast cancer. California’s diverse population is ideal for statewide clinical trials.
• Drug Development. Developing a new drug can take 10–15 years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Pharmaceutical companies select potential drugs most likely to be profitable; discoveries that are too risky or only have the potential to help a small population may never become treatments.
• Long-term Studies. A 20- or 30-year study of California women and girls could reveal a lot about risk factors that lead to breast cancer and point to ways to prevent the disease.
• Tissue Banks. Samples of tumors from California women, along with the women’s medical history, could provide answers to research questions now and in the future.
• Services. The CBCRP provides funding for community-based organizations to test services for women with cancer, but once those services have been shown to help women with breast cancer cope or survive, we are unable to provide continued support.
• Collaborative Consortium with Biotechnology. One of the most promising areas to support new therapies and drug discovery is the potential collaboration between the CBCRP and biotechnology leaders in academia, industry, and government. Agenda-setting conferences could propel research into development.
• Staff Scientist at the CBCRP. The CBCRP’s funding is devoted to research grants. The addition of a staff scientist would enable us to significantly increase our potential to efficiently coordinate programs with scientific and medical communities and pursue new research opportunities on both a short and long-term basis.
• National Priority-Setting Conferences. As the largest state-funded research organization in the nation, the CBCRP carries a leadership role. We have the opportunity to attract experts from medicine, research, and science to take part in a series of “think tank” conferences to support new directions in breast cancer research. The conferences would also draw new researchers into this field.
• Grant Proposals the CBCRP Does Not Fund. During 2003, the CBCRP turned down 174 grant applications that were requesting a total of $45,944,997. While some of these applications lacked merit, the majority contained good ideas. With technical assistance from the CBCRP, the majority of these applications could become good, creative projects that could help enlarge the scope of breast cancer research.
As Californians become involved in the CBCRP’s Community Partners Program, we hope that increased financial support will allow us to move into these new research directions and also to continue to fund the broad range of studies we have funded in the past.
