About the California Breast Cancer Research Program
Making California a Leader among States
In 1993, California breast cancer activists joined forces with scientists, clinicians, state legislators, and University of California officials to propel the state into national leadership for breast cancer research.
The activists, most of them women who had survived or currently had breast cancer, were impatient with the slow pace of progress against the disease. With their allies, they wrote and won passage of statewide legislation to push breast cancer research in new, creative directions. The California Breast Cancer Act, sponsored by then-Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman, raised the tobacco tax by two cents a pack, with 45 percent of the proceeds going to the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), which is administered as a public service by the University of California. The CBCRP has since become the largest, most stable state-funded breast cancer research effort in the nation.
The mission of the CBCRP is to eliminate breast cancer by leading innovation in research, communication, and collaboration among California’s lay and scientific communities.
The CBCRP has provided a total of over $181 million in research funds since 1993. In 2007, the CBCRP awarded $7.1 million for 35 single- and multiple-year research projects at 21 California institutions.
The CBCRP is funded primarily by the tobacco tax, a steadily declining source of revenue due to decreasing consumption of tobacco products. This funding is supplemented with taxpayer donations contributed through state income donations. The CBCRP also receives private contributions.
Pushing the Research Boundaries
During its fourteen-year history, the CBCRP has established a record for filling gaps not covered by other research funders, jump-starting new areas of research, and fostering new types of collaboration. Now the Program is challenging itself to find ways to focus its resources on questions that could change the face of breast cancer research.
The CBCRP's five-year Special Research Initiatives will investigate the role of the environment in breast cancer and the reasons why breast cancer affects some groups of Californians more than others. The CBCRP is investing 30 percent of its funds over this period in these initiatives. During 2007, to assure that the research will have the most impact on breast cancer and to avoid duplication, the CBCRP drafted a review of previous research in the areas to be covered under the Special Research Initiatives. This draft, titled "Identifying Gaps in Breast Cancer Research," has been posted to the CBCRP Web site, www.cabreastcancer.org. Two committees composed of experts of national stature are providing leadership for this research effort. The 6-member steering committee is guiding the Special Research Initiatives. The 33- member strategy team is developing specific recommendations for research to be funded (See Appendix A). During 2007, the public had opportunities to suggest questions to be investigated under the Special Research Initiatives through four statewide stakeholder town hall meetings, two teleconferences, and via a special section of the CBCRP Web site. The Special Research Initiatives are discussed more fully in the section of this report titled “The CBCRP’s Strategy for Funding Research.”
A Structure That Encourages Public Input
The CBCRP’s structure has set a standard for community involvement that has inspired similar changes in other research funding agencies around the nation. Through example, the CBCRP is encouraging other agencies to include community advocates in the review of research proposals and to involve community members in the design and conduct of research. Breast cancer advocates play a leading role in every aspect of the CBCRP’s work, from setting research priorities to recommending grants for funding to getting out the word about research results.
The CBCRP is under the direction of the University of California, Office of the President, in Oakland, with a staff managing the solicitation, review, award, and oversight of grants.
The CBCRP’s 16-member advisory Breast Cancer Research Council includes scientists, clinicians, representatives of industry and nonprofit health organizations, and breast cancer advocates. The council provides vision, sets research priorities, and determines how the CBCRP invests its funds in research. It also conducts one of two reviews that every proposal must pass to receive funding. The council reviews research proposals for relevance to the CBCRP’s goals, while teams of research scientists and breast cancer advocates from outside California also review all proposals for scientific merit.
In addition, all Californians concerned about breast cancer have opportunities to help set the research agenda via several avenues of feedback created by the Program. The Program’s biennial research symposia bring the scientific and treatment communities into dialog with a broader range of the public than is common at such conferences. Each symposium includes a session for members of the public to provide feedback on the Program’s work and suggest research priorities. The Program's five-year Special Research Initiatives included several opportunities during 2007 for the public to take part in identifying and prioritizing the questions to be investigated. These opportunities included town hall meetings, teleconferences, and a special section on the CBCRP Web site. The CBCRP also encourages public review of its funded research through its Advances in Breast Cancer Research report and the Program’s Web site (www.CABreastCancer.org), where members of the public can leave written comments.
By bringing the research, advocacy, and treatment communities into closer collaboration, the California Breast Cancer Research Program pushes the boundaries of research, mobilizing greater creativity and resources, toward decreasing—and ending—the suffering and death caused by breast cancer.
