Executive Summary

During 2007, the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) awarded $7.1 million for 35 single- and multiple-year research projects at 21 California institutions. These pages list the studies funded this year, the studies in progress, and summaries of 60 studies funded in previous years that were completed during 2007.

Table 1. Grants Awarded in 2006 by Subject Area
 
Number
of Grants
Amount
Percentage of
Total Funding
Community Impact of Breast Cancer
2
$1,935,241
27%
Etiology and Prevention
2
$911,413
13%
Detection, Prognosis and Treatment
14
$2,285,270
40%
Biology of the Breast Cell
13
$1,429,718
20%

Totals
35
$7,101,642
100%

Designed to push breast cancer research in new, creative directions, the CBCRP is funded primarily by a California state tax on tobacco. Since 1993, the CBCRP has provided over $181 million in research funds.

The need is urgent. Every two hours, on average, a California woman dies of breast cancer. More than 220,000 Californians are living with the disease, and over 19,500 more will be diagnosed this year. Over the past three decades, some progress has been made. Between 1988 and 2004, the breast cancer death rate in California dropped by over 28 percent. While some argue that this is the result of earlier detection, there has been no significant drop in diagnosis of cancers that have spread to other parts of the body. Thus, it is more likely that the lower death rate is due to improvements in treatment, or to more women receiving appropriate treatment.

The rate at which California women get breast cancer has also improved somewhat in recent years, after climbing steeply from 1973-1988 and staying near the 1988 rate for more than a decade. While some attribute this to a drop in detecting breast tumors because women are receiving fewer mammograms, others observe that even women who receive mammograms are being diagnosed with breast cancer at a lower rate. This leads many researchers to believe that the current decrease in breast cancer cases is due to fewer women receiving hormone replacement therapy. This welcome decrease in breast cancer underscores the need to move beyond just stopping a harmful medical intervention; research is needed to find out why so many women still get breast cancer and to develop positive interventions that prevent the disease.

Breast cancer activists have played a leading role in the CBCRP from the beginning. They helped write and pass the statewide legislation that created the Program in 1993. Women with breast cancer and survivors of the disease are involved in all levels of the CBCRP’s decision making, including decisions about which projects get funded. With input from these advocates, the CBCRP has established a record for funding cutting-edge studies and jump-starting new areas of research. The Program’s goal is to fund the projects that will lead most rapidly to the end of the breast cancer epidemic.

This report has been prepared by the University of California pursuant to Article 1 of Chapter 2 of Part 1 of Division 103 of the California Health and Safety Code, Section 104145; and the Revenue and Taxation Code Sections 30461-30462.1 and 18791-18796. The following required reporting elements will be addressed in this report:

  1. The number and dollar amounts of research grants, including the amount allocated to indirect costs.
    The CBCRP awarded $7.1 million for 35 single- and multiple-year research projects at 21 California institutions in 2007. A complete list of newly funded grants can be found in Table 2.
  2. The institutions and campuses receiving grant awards.
    All funded grants are listed with the recipient institutions in the Research Progress and Results section of this report (pages 30-66).
  3. The subject of research grants.
    All of the investigator-initiated grants funded by the CBCRP involve key questions in one or more of the following research areas:
    • Basic Biology of the Breast (normal breast biology and breast cancer pathogenesis)
    • Breast Cancer Causes and Prevention
    • Earlier Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Breast Cancer
    • Community Impact of Breast Cancer (Socio-cultural behavioral studies and health policy)

The CBCRP is also setting aside $18 million over five years to fund its Special Research Initiatives, which is a program-initiated endeavor to identify and support research strategies to understand and address both the environmental causes of breast cancer and the unequal burden of the disease across ethnic, racial, and cultural populations in California.

  1. The relationship between federal and state funding for breast cancer research.
    The CBCRP takes several steps to avoid duplication of funding at the individual grant level and in the Program’s research priorities. We identify and attempt to fill important gaps in knowledge about breast cancer. We review priorities yearly in light of changes in the research field, successes and failures of previous funding initiatives, and the results of previous funding. Additionally, as founding members of the International Cancer Research Portfolio and participating members of the Collaborative Summit on Breast Cancer Research, we are able to ensure that CBCRP funding complements rather than duplicates grants bestowed by other funding organizations.

The CBCRP’s Breast Cancer Research Council sets the Program’s funding priorities, taking into account:

  1. The relationship between each project and the overall strategy of the research program.
    The following ten criteria are used to set priorities that push the boundaries of research.
    1. The research helps form and nurture collaboration among California scientists, clinicians, advocates, community members, and others.
    2. The research helps recruit, retain, and develop high-quality Californiabased investigators who engage in breast cancer research.
    3. The research embodies innovative ideas (e.g., new drugs, new strategies, new paradigms).
    4. The research addresses the public health outcomes of prevention, earliest detection, effective treatments, and quality of life.
    5. The research leads quickly to more effective products, technologies, or interventions and their application/delivery to Californians.
    6. The research helps drive policy in both the private and public sectors on breast cancer in California.
    7. The research reduces disparities and/or addresses the needs of the underserved in California.
    8. The research complements, builds on, feeds into, but does not duplicate the research programs of other organizations interested in breast cancer.
    9. The research addresses a breast cancer need that is specific but not necessarily unique to the burden of breast cancer in California.
    10. The research is responsive to the perceived breast cancer research needs and expectations of the CBCRP as identified by scientists and the public in California.

Each individual grant is evaluated by our scientific review committees and our advisory Breast Cancer Research Council for essential criteria for addressing these goals, including innovativeness, impact on breast cancer, responsiveness to program priorities, whether it’s an underfunded research area, and integration of advocacy issues.

  1. A summary of research findings including discussion of promising new areas. Summaries of all of the completed research grants are included in the body of this report. Listed below are just a few of the findings:
  1. Inclusion of women and minorities in research studies.
    Thirty-four percent (12 of 35) of the grants awarded by the CBCRP in 2007 studied either women or tissues from women, while the remaining 66 percent were laboratory studies that did not directly involve women or tissues from women.

Of the 12 grants that involved women or tissues from women, 100 percent (12) of the grants involved women as study participants.

-- Twenty percent (7) are focused on underserved women.
-- Fourteen percent (5) are focused on minority women.

This report describes the CBCRP’s recent activities, goals, progress, and plans for the challenges that lie ahead on the road to decreasing the human and economic cost of breast cancer for the people of California.