Bay Area Breast Cancer & the Environment Research Center

描述（申请人提供）乳腺癌仍然是女性最常见的癌症，也许也是她们最害怕的医学诊断。虽然人们对乳腺癌的病因已经了解很多，但是对于环境因素是如何引发乳腺癌的，以及这些因素在人的一生中什么时候起作用，人们仍然存在疑问。湾区乳腺癌和环境研究中心（BABCERC），位于加州大学旧金山分校综合癌症中心，由人口科学主任Robert A. Hiatt博士领导，将通过关注青春期乳腺的发育来解决对乳腺癌环境病因的持续关注，此时乳房可能特别容易受到环境的影响。同时，它将创建一个独特的组织基础设施，以加强科学家与当地社区和倡导团体之间的现有伙伴关系，遵循基于社区的参与性研究的原则。湾区非常适合建立这样一个中心，因为据报道，那里的乳腺癌发病率是全国最高的，而且社区成员、政府领导人、卫生部门、学术机构和倡导团体都对此非常感兴趣并予以合作。项目1将研究正常和易患癌症小鼠在发育的各个阶段的乳腺细胞和乳腺微环境，以确定该模型中暴露于典型环境应激源的影响，并开发基于体外机制的筛选，以检测可能具有乳腺致癌性的药物。项目2建议从凯撒基金会健康计划中招募大约400名7-8岁的女孩，并跟踪她们度过青春期。在6年的随访期间，将从问卷调查、体格检查和生物标本中收集数据，以分析环境因素与乳腺发育之间的联系，包括与选定的基因-环境相互作用相关的易感性的可能重要性。社区外展和转化核心将由马林县和旧金山县当地乳腺癌倡导运动的领导人领导和组成，他们在本研究的主题上与各自的社区合作经验丰富。COTC活动与研究项目高度整合和互动，并与社区及其关注的问题密切相关。通过整合发展生物学、流行病学和社区倡导等领域的广泛专业技能，BABCERC将为重大社会和生物医学挑战的跨学科研究提供令人兴奋的机会……了解乳腺癌与环境的关系。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Breast cancer remains the most common cancer for women and perhaps their most feared medical diagnosis. Although much is known about the etiology of breast cancer, questions remain about environmental factors that initiate breast cancer carcinogenesis and when they act during the lifespan. The Bay Area Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Center (BABCERC), based at the University of California San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center under the leadership of Dr. Robert A. Hiatt, Director of Population Sciences, will address the on-going concerns about the environmental etiology of breast cancer by focusing on mammary gland development during puberty when the breast may be especially vulnerable to environmental influences. At the same time it will create a unique organizational infrastructure for enhancing the existing partnership of scientists with local community and advocacy groups following the principles of community-based participatory research. The Bay Area is well suited for such a Center because rates of breast cancer there have been reported as the highest in the nation and there is high interest and cooperation from involved community members, government leaders, health departments, academic institutions and advocacy groups. Project 1 will study mammary cells and the mammary microenvironment in normal and cancer prone mice during all stages of development to determine the effects of exposure to prototypical environmental stressors in this model and develop in vitro mechanism-based screens to detect agents with possible mammary gland carcinogenicity. Project 2 proposes to recruit a cohort of approximately 400 7-8 year old girls from the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and follow them through the pubertal transition. Data will be collected during a 6 year follow-up period from questionnaires, physical examination, and biospecimens that will allow analyses of links between environmental factors and mammary development, including the possible importance of susceptibility associated with selected gene-environment interactions. The Community Outreach and Translational Core will be directed and comprised of leaders in the local breast cancer advocacy movements in Marin and San Francisco Counties, who are highly experienced working with their respective communities on the topic of this research. The COTC activities are both highly integrated and interactive with the research projects and well connected to the community and its concerns. By incorporating the skills of a broad spectrum of expertise in fields such as developmental biology, epidemiology, and community advocacy, the BABCERC will provide an exciting opportunity for transdisciplinary research on a significant societal and biomedical challenge...understanding the relationship of breast cancer to the environment.