Preventing Breast Cancer the Focus of 2009-2010 Susan G. Komen for the Cure Promise Grants

July 2, 2009 — One of the most important challenges in the cancer community today is whether people can, in fact, prevent their own cancers. Susan G. Komen for the Cure® is announcing millions of dollars in long-term grant funding to find out.

The world’s leading breast cancer organization is now asking the scientific community for proposals for long-term research grants – some as large as $5 million – to study everything from the role of natural products to diets to breast cancer vaccines.

“Prevention is a very hot issue these days, but clear enough scientific evidence to say that this diet, that behavior, or the elimination of this environmental agent significantly reduces your risk of breast cancer doesn’t yet exist. And we certainly don’t have a vaccine to prevent breast cancer,” said Hala Moddelmog, Komen’s president and CEO. “Since our mission is to end breast cancer forever, we consider prevention and vaccine research absolutely critical, and we’re willing to invest significant sums to get these answers.”

The research will be funded through Komen’s unique Promise Grants: multi-year, multi-million dollar projects geared to answer the toughest questions in breast cancer science today.

Introduced in 2008, Promise Grants require collaboration across a wide range of disciplines – scientists, medical professionals, caregivers, public health specialists and advocates – who normally may not work together. These teams conduct research with the highest potential to deliver treatments for breast cancer more quickly and for this new Promise Grant to find ways to prevent breast cancer.

“Komen’s mission has always been to find cures for breast cancer, which to this point has involved hundreds of millions of dollars and three decades of research into understanding the disease and developing treatments that are saving lives,” said Diana Rowden, vice president of Health Sciences. “It’s absolutely critical for us to work on strategies to prevent breast cancer entirely, or at least pinpoint the environmental and lifestyle issues that may contribute to breast cancer. We know this research will get us closer.”