Research underway

In March 2008, the CBCRP Advisory Council reviewed the recommendations of the SRI Steering Committee and decided to pursue program-directed research areas. As of August 2011, 27 grants totaling about $22 million have been awarded to address the environmental causes of breast cancer and the unequal burden of the disease, and to move the SRI research agenda forward.

DISPARITIES

• California Breast Cancer Survivorship Consortium: Five institutions, representing seven breast cancer studies, successfully completed a pilot project entitled Race and Ethnicity in Stage-specific Breast Cancer Survival. Together they are exploring the influence of contextual factors (such as SES), body size, physical activity, and co-morbidities on racial and ethnic differences in breast cancer survival.
• Demographic Questions for California BC Research: Scientists and community advocates working to identify demographic measures that will improve understanding of disparities in breast cancer.
• The Immigrant Experience and Breast Cancer Risk in Asians: Exploring how discrimination and other factors may affect breast cancer risk, how risk changes over the lifespan, and how it is affected by community.

ENVIRONMENT

• California Chemicals Policy and Breast Cancer: Developed recommendations for a state chemicals policy that considers breast and other hormonal cancers.
• Making chemicals testing relevant to breast cancer: Creating and validating tools for toxicity testing specific to breast cancer, including new methods for screening chemicals:
  • Biologically Relevant Screening of Endocrine Disruptors
  • Xenoestrogen-Specific Perturbations in the Human Breast
  • Cell Bioassays for Detection of Aromatase Gene Activators
  • Biomarkers for Environmental Exposures in Breast Cancer
  • Building on National Initiatives for New Chemicals Screening

BOTH ENVIRONMENT AND DISPARITIES

• Statistical methods to study interacting factors that impact breast cancer.
  • Model-building with Complex Environmental Exposures
  • New Methods for Genomic Studies in African-American Women
  • Cancer Mapping: Making Spatial Models Work for Communities
• New Paradigm of Breast Cancer Causation and Prevention: Develop a complexity-theory model of breast cancer causation to aid researchers and communities. The dynamic model has been developed and can be viewed on our Model of Breast Cancer Causation page.
• Environmental Causes of Breast Cancer Across Generations: Investigate how exposure to environmental toxins in infants is related to breast cancer risk.
• Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) and Breast Cancer Risk: Exploring the risk of breast cancer associated with POPs and examining racial, ethnic and other disparities in exposure.