CCCWFU BREAST CANCER RESEARCH PROGRAM PLANNING GRANT

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The purpose of this application is to provide funding to establish a multidiscplinary broad based infrastructure for the conduct and continued development of breast cancer research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University (CCCWFU). The CCCWFU serves as the major tertiary referral center for the Piedmont region (a five state area including western North Carolina) and has generated major programs in cancer research in this area. Research efforts have included prevention, screening, and treatment programs with a major emphasis on clinical trials involving community participation. Moreover, the CCCWFU has had a long standing interest in breast cancer research as demonstrated by the several funded projects currently in progress. The purpose of this application is to provide the intrastructure to combine and expand current research efforts and develop new research efforts that satisfy the criteria for an NCI designated Breast Cancer Research Program. Major strengths of our current program and the foundation of our proposed program include: (1) evaluation and clinical trials of antioxidants as preventive agents; (2) major community and regional efforts to overcome barriers to prevention, screening and treatment of breast cancer in older and minority women; (3) the identification of new prognostic factors that help predict response to treatment in patients with early stage breast cancer; and (4) the opportunity to develop collaborative efforts with our strong signal transduction affinity group related to breast cancer. Our proposed program is further enhanced by: (1) the number of clinical investigators who have primary research interest in breast cancer; (2) the number of laboratory investigators who are studying breast cancer; others in the Cancer Center have the capability and interest but currently lack direction and focus that the proposed program will provide; (3) the growing group of epidemiologists and social scientists with expertise and interest in breast cancer prevention; (4) a large, diverse population base for clinical and epidemiologic trials which has been organized by the Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University; (5) prior success with interdisciplinary programs; and (6) a spirit of collaborative interaction among institutional, Cancer Center and proposed program members.