Introduction

The California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) is pleased to announce the funding of 68 new research grants that will advance our knowledge about the causes, prevention, biology, detection, and treatment of breast cancer. With these new awards, the State is investing nearly $15 million to impact the lives of California women. These research projects are being performed at 22 institutions across the state, including universities both public (e.g., University of California campuses) and private (e.g., Stanford University); national laboratories (e.g., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory); research institutes (e.g., The Burnham Institute); and medical centers (e.g., California Pacific Medical Center).

The CBCRP supports breast cancer research only in California from funds obtained through:

  1. A portion of a 2 cents per pack State cigarette tax
  2. Contributions from individuals using the State's income tax check-off option
  3. Other generous contributions from concerned community members dedicated to defeating breast cancer

This is our eighth year (or cycle) of grant funding, and through 2002 we have distributed or encumbered approximately $131 million to fund 518 research projects. The CBCRP is administered by the University of California, Office of the President-Division of Health Affairs, in Oakland. The overall objectives, strategies, and priorities of the CBCRP are set by a volunteer advisory Council, which actively participates in overseeing the program and making final recommendations on the grant applications to be funded. The Council consists of 16 members: five are representatives of breast cancer survivor/advocacy groups; five are scientists/clinicians; two are members from non-profit health organizations, one is a practicing breast cancer medical specialist, two are members from private industry, and one is an ex-officio member from the DHS Breast Cancer Early Detection Program.

The Challenge:

With a budget only about 0.1% that of the NIH, the challenge the CBCRP faces is to make the most impact on breast cancer and address the specific concerns of our California stakeholders. Our stated mission is:

 

". to reduce the impact of breast cancer in California by supporting research on breast cancer and facilitating the dissemination of research findings and their translation into public health practice."

We realize that both the task to accomplish this mission and the opportunities for success are enormous. Working alongside our advisory Council, we designated nine specific topics, which we call Priority Issues, for invited research in 2002. In addition, we offer a variety of award types that are tailored to the needs of both researchers and the CBCRP's mission. The reason we detail our funding interests so carefully is to: (1) encourage multi-disciplinary collaborative and community-oriented participatory research, (2) allow researchers to explore innovative, "high reward" opportunities, (3) bring new researchers into breast cancer at all levels, and (4) focus on underserved communities and special topics not well covered by other funding agencies. We have seen that our interests and goals have attracted the highest quality California researchers and institutions to apply. There are two primary reasons for this. First, we maintain the focus of California researchers towards breast cancer by hosting a statewide, biennial CBCRP Research Symposium. This meeting brings the general public, Program stakeholders, and our funded researchers together and serves to motivate and generate a common purpose. We encourage breast cancer activists to express their concerns, so that the research community comes face-to-face with the human issues of the disease. Second, we offer an objective, competitive grant application evaluation and funding process. In summary, we keep the challenge of defeating breast cancer squarely in the path of researchers in California, and we become active partners in their efforts.

How do we see our mission being accomplished? Our thinking is that the successful enterprise to impact breast cancer will emerge from a combination of: (1) individual creativity, (2) the coalescence of talent from different fields, (3) integrating the social and political components of the disease, (4) involving communities as equal partners in research aims, and (5) an overall vision of purpose. To the extent that encouraging research and funding grants can accomplish these ends, the CBCRP is taking up the challenge.

The CBCRP Funding Process:

In January-February 2002 we received 198 grant applications in response to our "Call" for new research on breast cancer. This was a more than 20% increase in applications compared to 2001. They were evaluated for scientific excellence in a "study section", or peer review process. Our review committee membership and a description of this process are found at the end of this booklet. What we feel makes our system special is the input of our advisory Council in a well-defined "programmatic review", which complements the scientific review to ensure that funded grants match the goals of the CBCRP. The Council members consider several aspects of the responsiveness of the applications to programmatic criteria independently before seeing the scientific peer review merit scores. Thus programmatic interest is rated as a separate item. Finally, the advisory Council and Program staff combine the scientific merit and programmatic interest elements to arrive at a funding decision for each application. The end result is that the successful applicant has responded both in terms of presenting a high quality research project and by meeting the interests of the CBCRP stakeholders.

The Outcome:

In the remainder of this introduction and the detailed sections to follow, we present a summary and listing of funded CBCRP grants for 2002 including:

  1. Statistics related to funding CBCRP Priority Issue topics and Award Types
  2. Highlights of 2002 funding
  3. Portfolio summary and detailed list of funded grants for each of our Priority Issue groups
  4. List of funded institutions
  5. Detailed description of the review and funding process and review committee membership

We have organized our nine research topic Priority Issues into four groups that have a common theme. We feel that this best integrates the pieces of the puzzlethat each grant represents in the breast cancer research landscape. The full abstracts of these newly funded grants, as well as those from previous CBCRP funding cycles, can be found on our Web site. We welcome your thoughts and feedback either via our Web site link "CBCRP Listens" or by e-mail: cbcrp@ucop.edu.

1. Statistical Summary:

A. New CBCRP Funding in 2002:

Diversity supplements to previous CBCRP grants:

Total of new grants and supplements awarded in 2002 = $15,089,003

B. Applications and Awards by CBCRP Priority Issues:

Priority Issue

# Applications

# Grants Awarded

Awarded Amount

Health Policy & Health Services

3

2

$432,055

Sociocultural

9

2

$205,028

Racial & Ethnic Differences

3

2

$289,563

Etiology

6

3

$389,696

Prevention

18

4

$1,087,573

Earlier Detection

10

3

$955,959

Innovative Treatments

38

10

$2,293,421

Biology of the Normal Breast

28

11

$3,076,254

Pathogenesis

83

31

$6,159,554

C. Applications and Awards by CBCRP Award Types:

Award Type

# Applications

# Grants

Awarded Award Amount

Collaboration Awards:

Community (CRC)

6

2

$266,889

Translational (TRC)

8

4

$1,512,755

Sci. Perspectives (SPRC)

4

1

$100,000
 

Investigator-initiated Awards:

RFA

11

3

$2,282,399

STEP

64

19

$5,618,764

IDEA

32

8

$1,085,670
 

Career Development Awards:

Dissertation

15

11

$551,729

Postdoctoral

40

14

$1,172,544

New Investigator

16

5

$2,028,655

Training Program

2

1

$269,698

Pie charts showing relative distribution of 2002 CBCRP grants by Priority Issues (left) and Award Types (right). Data is for dollar amount.

2. Funding Highlights:

2002 CBCRP funding featured:

  • Eleven grants to expand our knowledge of normal breast development, function, aging, and separating abnormal breast structures from normal ones. These projects lay the groundwork for explaining the source of breast cancer and how normal breast biology might be influenced to prevent breast cancer.
  • Seven awards that focus on prevention/risk reduction and etiology, including state-of-the-art genetic analysis, exploring ethnic differences, and continuing a training program to focus on these issues
  • Two projects to improve health services by investigating bone density and access and delivery issues for African American women
  • Three projects investigate the underlying reasons behind racial and ethnic disparities associated with breast cancer
  • Two awards deal with sociocultural/psychological issues related to weight loss and the physiological effects of breast cancer diagnosis
  • Ten grants will further our understanding of how the disease progresses at the basic science level
  • Thirteen grants to explore novel methods to detect breast cancer and explore novel approaches to treatments. Many of these projects involve cross-disciplinary collaboration teams.
  • Twenty-seven projects for innovative, exploratory, and high-risk/high reward research projects to push boundaries, challenge existing paradigms, and initiate new research programs
  • Thirty-one awards provide opportunities in career development at the levels of graduate training, postdoctoral fellowships, and newly independent investigators. These researchers bring fresh thinking to their respective disciplines.
  • Three grants in special-topic RFAs, which we have identified as under-funded and allow the CBCRP to maximize its overall impact in breast cancer research
  • Seven projects involve collaborative teams that include community groups and cross-disciplinary efforts of traditional researchers
  • Three awards and the 6 diversity supplements to previously-funded CBCRP grants are of special interest, because they are funded, in part, by revenue from the California State Income Tax Check-off. These projects are great examples of our research commitment.