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Original link: http://www.cbcrp.org/media/pr/082906.php

California Breast Cancer Research Program Funds $9.8 Million to Researchers

August 29, 2006—Oakland, CA—The California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) has offered $9.8 million in funding to 53 new research projects around the state. “We’re excited by the possibilities inherent in these projects,” said Mhel Kavanaugh-Lynch, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the CBCRP. “These projects represent a spectrum of scientific analysis, career development, and community participation that will increase our knowledge of the causes of breast cancer, and investigate new avenues for preventing detecting, and treating the disease.”

Highlights of this year’s CBCRP new grant portfolio include:

• 16 projects to study tumor biology and/or aspects of normal breast biology that lead to cancer
• 18 projects to pursue new detection, prognosis, and treatment options
• 17 projects to study the impact of breast cancer on communities and individuals
• 11 projects in which community organizations work as equal research partners with experienced scientist-researchers to address questions important to the community; four additional teams of scientists and community organizations received planning grants to help them develop their partnerships
• 15 projects to further the career development of young researchers
• 23 projects to explore high-risk/high-reward research ideas

Funding for the California Breast Cancer Research Program is partially dependent on individual donations and voluntary contributions made by California tax payers on their state income tax forms. The CBCRP awards some grants specifically from these funds.

Faith Fancher Research Award
The recipient of the 2006 Faith Fancher Research Award is Irene Yen, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, for her study, “Neighborhood Environment and Obesity in Pre-adolescent Girls.” Dr. Yen is studying the impact of city planning policies and neighborhood conditions and services on girls’ eating and exercise habits. Obesity is a significant risk factor for breast cancer, and childhood obesity may lead to early puberty, which is an additional breast cancer risk.

Faith Fancher was a long-time television reporter and news anchor with KTVU (Oakland) and one of the founding members of the CBCRP Executive Team. Faith waged her very own public battle with breast cancer, and worked fearlessly to improve breast cancer services to women in the Bay Area. She passed away in 2003 after a six-year struggle with the disease. In Faith’s honor and to commemorate her work in breast cancer education and research, the California Breast Cancer Research Program annually selects a researcher, institution, or community group whose work reflects those values that Faith held most closely and extends the work that Faith did for all women facing breast cancer.

Tax Donations Fund Research
In 2005, California taxpayers contributed $636,319 to the CBCRP through the voluntary contributions section of their state income tax forms. Line 57 on State Income Tax Form 540 earmarked donations for the Breast Cancer Research Fund, and the CBCRP earmarked that money specifically for research projects that could make the greatest direct impact on Californians. Seven projects will receive funding from Tax Check-off donations:

Southeast Asian Breast Health Navigation
Mary Anne Foo M.P.H., CHES and Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, Ph.D., R.N., M.N.
Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance and University of California, Los Angeles
This Community Research Collaboration pilot study will examine aspects of current patient navigation systems that might help Southeast Asian women with breast cancer. Findings from this study will inform the development of a formal patient navigation system in this community.

Addressing Cultural and Tribal Issues in Breast Cancer
Linda Navarro and Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater, Ph.D.
Turtle Health Foundation and University of California, Davis
This Community Research Collaboration pilot study addresses the disparity in breast health knowledge among American Indian women. The team is developing a DVD to help increase knowledge, reduce barriers to screening, and to integrate traditional health and healing beliefs and behaviors with Western medicine to encourage and support the adoption of healthy lifestyles.

Telephone-based Decision Support for Rural Patients
Sara O’Donnell and Jeff Belkora, Ph.D.
Mendocino Cancer Resource Center and University of California, San Francisco
Newly diagnosed patients are often too overwhelmed to think of all of the questions they need to ask their doctor to make decisions about their treatment and some geographically isolated, underserved patients face additional barriers to participating in decisions about their care. This research team is expanding their successful consultation planning tool to serve more diverse patient groups and residents in extremely rural areas.

The Role Chk1 in Breast Cancer DNA Damage Repair
Jennifer Scorah, Ph.D.
Scripps Research Institute
This postdoctoral fellowship project aims to understand key genetic events that lead to breast cancer by comparing the regulation of a breast cancer cell cycle checkpoint protein, called Chk1, during the normal cell cycle to how it behaves following DNA damage. Understanding the differences in the mechanisms of Chk1 regulation could lead to better breast cancer therapies..

Identification of Metastasis Competent Breast Cancer Cells
Barbara Mueller, Ph.D.
La Jolla Institute for Molecular Medicine
This IDEA grant will pursue the hypothesis that breast cancer metastasis can be predicted before it occurs. The research team will employ a novel approach, called “phage tagging” to identify which combinations of proteins are present when a tumor metastasizes and then to discover which of the proteins enable metastasis

A Novel Biological Framework for the Role of Xenoestrogens
Shanaz Dairkee, Ph.D.
California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute
The objective of this IDEA grant is to determine the biological effects of the xenoestrogen bisphenol A, a common component of plastic containers for water, milk, and other ingested consumables.

Breast Cancer Metastasis: A Heritable Trait?
Alice Wittemore, Ph.D.
Stanford University
This IDEA grant will examine families that have more than one person with breast cancer to investigate whether the spread of breast cancer to other parts of the body is influenced by an inherited gene.

This is the twelfth year of funding for the California Breast Cancer Research Program. To date, the CBCRP has awarded 725 grants to 89 scientific institutions and community organizations, totaling more than $174 million for research in California to detect, treat, and prevent breast cancer.

The mission of the CBCRP is to eliminate breast cancer by leading innovation in research, communication, and collaboration in the California scientific and lay communities. Grants from the CBCRP fill gaps not traditionally funded by other research programs to jump-start new areas of investigation that push the boundaries of research and foster new collaborations.

The CBCRP was created by the State Legislature in 1993, and is funded through the voluntary tax check-off program on personal income tax form 540, a portion of the state tobacco tax, and individual contributions. The CBCRP is the largest state-funded breast cancer research program in the nation, and 95 percent of all funds go to research and education.