Contact:
Daniela Seminara, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences
National Cancer Institute
6130 Executive Boulevard, EPN Room 5142, MSC 7393
Bethesda, MD 20852-7393
Telephone: 301-594-7347
Fax: 301-435-5477
E-mail: seminard@mail.nih.gov

Objective of Project:

The B-CFR initiative will provide support to maintain and re-structure the core activities of this research infrastructure to: a) maximize its use and exploitation by interdisciplinary teams of researchers, including investigators from the B-CFR participating institutions and qualified scientists from the research community at large; and b) adapt to the changing technologies and evolving scientific knowledge. The support for follow-up activities will increase the richness and complexity of the data added as well as the maximizing the biospecimen resource. In particular, continued support will: a) expedite research on genetic and environmental modifiers of risk for breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes, especially for genes at high and intermediate penetrance, where questions are addressed which need large and highly characterized populations; b) contribute to the characterization of low penetrance candidate genes through collaboration with other existing consortia (i.e., cohort consortium); c) rapidly implement pilot and feasibility studies thereby avoiding expenditures of much larger resources; and d) focus on the translation of these results to the affected and at-risk populations as well as on creating the infrastructure for a vigorous behavioral research agenda related to breast cancer uniquely focused on the familial unit.

Description of Project:

The cooperative agreements will support the focused collaborative activities necessary to enable the B-CFR infrastructure to enable interdisciplinary consortial research in the following areas:

1. Identification of genetic factors related to breast cancer risk;
2. Investigation of environmental and genetic modifiers of breast cancer risk;
3. Application of results from genetic and molecular epidemiology studies of breast cancer to translational and clinical studies; and
4. Behavioral response to familial breast cancer.

Applicants are expected to describe a broad research agenda based on the maintenance and re-structuring of the B-CFR into the following core platforms:

1. Follow-up and Targeted Recruitment;
2. Translational (Clinical);
3. Pathology;
4. Biospecimen;
5. Molecular Characterization;
6. Informatics and Analytic;
7. Behavioral and Survivorship; and
8. Coordination, Communication, and Administration.