Making Progress on Breast Cancer

Abstract

For the last two years, scientists across the country have been working together in a highly collaborative effort to uncover the links between exposure to environmental pollutants, puberty, and development of breast cancer. On 10–11 November 2005 the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers (BCERCs), a joint effort of the NIEHS and the National Cancer Institute, came together in Michigan to share what they have accomplished to date. Each center reported on advances made over the past year in their two research components: 1) research on the basic biology of mammary gland development, and 2) epidemiologic studies of how environmental factors affect puberty in girls. The impetus for creation of the centers came from appeals from advocates, who urged the NIH to support a more comprehensive approach to research on the environmental causes of breast cancer. “We wanted a research approach that focused on environmental causes, and we wanted more involvement from the advocates’ perspective,” said Dale Eastman, vice president of the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation. “The centers represent a great opportunity to conduct transdisciplinary science to explore the problem of breast cancer from many different perspectives, including the valuable perspective of [breast cancer survivor] advocates,” said Robert Hiatt, principal investigator for the BCERC at the University of California, San Francisco, which collaborates with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and serves as the coordinating center for the BCERC network. The other three centers are housed at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia (which collaborates with Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the University of Alabama at Birmingham), the University of Cincinnati in Ohio (which collaborates with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center), and Michigan State University in East Lansing. Three important features characterize the BCERC program. First, the four centers work together as a network in which experimental methods are coordinated in order to maximize the pooling and comparison of the data generated. Second, to allow adequate time to track the subjects and collect comprehensive information on the onset and progress of puberty, the BCERCs will be funded for seven years, an unusually long time, given that most NIH grants are funded for a maximum of five years. Third, representatives of breast cancer survivor advocacy organizations are integral members of the centers. The advocate members participate in many aspects of the decision-making processes, collaborate with the Community Outreach and Translation Cores of the centers, and added much to the discussion at the annual meeting.