Five UCSF research projects have been awarded funding by the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP), which recently announced $9.8 million in grants to 53 new research projects around the state.
The CBCRP is the largest state-funded breast cancer research program in the nation, and was created by the state Legislature in 1993. It is funded through the voluntary tax check-off program on personal income tax form 540, a portion of the state tobacco tax and individual contributions.
Jeff Belkora, PhD, assistant adjunct professor and director of Decision Services at the UCSF Breast Care Center, is one of seven statewide recipients of the 2005 tax research donations fund. The seven projects were chosen based on what could make the greatest direct impact on Californians. His study, in collaboration with the Mendocino Cancer Resource Center, will look at telephone-based decision support for rural patients.
"Newly diagnosed patients are often too overwhelmed to think of all the questions they need to ask their doctor to make decisions about treatment," he said. "In rural areas with diverse populations, patients may face additional barriers such as distance or geographic isolation, and culture and language. We are studying how to provide decision support to diverse rural, underserved breast cancer patients so that they may participate more effectively in their care."
The recipient of the 2006 Faith Fancher Research Award is Irene Yen, PhD, MPH, epidemiologist in the Division of General Internal Medicine. The award was named in honor of the late KTVU-TV television reporter and news anchor Faith Fancher, who waged her own battle with breast cancer. The CBCRP annually selects a researcher, institution or community group whose work to improve breast cancer services to women in the Bay Area extends the work that Fancher did.
Yen's project is an 18-month ancillary study that will build on the five-year Community Study of Young Girls' Nutrition, Environment and Transitions (CYGNET) that follows the eating and exercise habits of 450 7-year-old girls as they relate to obesity as a precursor to breast cancer.
"Obesity is typically described as the result of eating poorly and not exercising," said Yen. "Childhood obesity may lead to early puberty and the start of menstruation, which in itself is a risk factor for adult breast cancer. We want to look at how girls' eating and exercise habits are influenced by their neighborhood environments, which are in part a product of city planning policies and the types of services and stores the girls and their families have access to."
The project will involve information gathering and analysis of the girls' neighborhoods and city policies that influence their physical environment and link it to the data already being collected by CYGNET.
"We will look at everything -- the proximity of grocery stores and fast food outlets, parks and playgrounds, even the level of traffic and types of roads that are in a quarter-mile radius from the girls in the study," said Yen. "By quantifying the data, we'll be able to compare how existing written policy corresponds with actual on-the-ground circumstances, such as services and physical conditions in neighborhoods that promote or hinder nutritious diet and physical activity."
Other UCSF research projects awarded CBCRP funding are:
- • Nancy Burke, PhD, assistant adjunct
professor in the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, is collaborating with the
West Bay Filipino Multi-Service Center to study Filipina breast cancer support,
to see which model is meaningful.
- • H. Stephen Kaye, PhD, associate adjunct
professor at the Institute for Health & Aging, is working with the Central
Coast Center for Independent Living on a project to increase mammography usage
among Latinas with disabilities.
- • Claudia Petritsch, PhD, assistant research
biochemist in the Department of Neurological Surgery, will look at the role
of cell division asymmetry in breast cancer stem cells.
To see a list of the 53 recipients of the California Breast Cancer Research Program,
visit the website.
