Only through research and education will breast cancer be defeated. FBCF raises funds to support research within the State of Florida by holding fundraisers, and by promoting the sale and use of the “End Breast Cancer” license plate. We offer scientific research grants to Florida institutions. We serve on cancer boards within the State and on peer review groups nationally.

You, too, can aid breast cancer research. Volunteer to help FBCF by filling out our volunteer form. Join FBCF and / or donate to the cause. Purchase the “End Breast Cancer” license plate and save a life!

Learn More About Research
Research Grants
History of Grants
Scientific Committee
License Plate

The CHOICES Study at the UM Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is looking for Hispanic or Black cancer survivors to review an informational website about cancer research studies and answer some questions about the website.

They are looking for:
Hispanic or Black adults (age 21 or older), who speak and read English , have been diagnosed with any cancer in the past 6 years, have completed the first part of cancer treatment, and are comfortable using a computer and the internet on their own.

Study participants will receive a $60 gift card for their time.

The interviews will be conducted at the University of Miami Medical Campus, South Miami and Broward.

For more information or to schedule a session, contact us at: 305.243.8790 / 305.243.8978 or CHOICES@med.miami.edu.

African-American Breast Cancer Survivors in the US:
Please Join the Jewels in Our Genes Family Study!

Image credit: Army of Women

African American women have higher rates of premenopausal breast cancer than women of European ancestry. They are also more likely to die of breast cancer. Is it possible that there are certain inherited genetic mutations that may explain why? A research team at the University at Buffalo thinks the answer is yes. And they need African-American women who were diagnosed with breast cancer of any stage, including metastatic disease and DCIS, AND their relatives who are also breast cancer survivors to help them find out. If you are interested in learning more, please read on!

This study may sound familiar to you. That is because the University of Buffalo first sent a Call to Action in October 2010 to recruit African-American families for this study. With help from the Army of Women members, the researchers are working toward their goal. But they need more women to participate and they need YOUR help to find them!

What's the study about?

The research team is studying why some African American families have multiple cases of breast cancer. This will help to better understand if there are undiscovered genes unique to African Americans that may predict early breast cancer risk.

What's involved?

If you join the Jewels in Our Genes study you will be asked questions about your breast cancer diagnosis and about your family history of breast cancer. You will be asked to give a sample of saliva so that the researchers can collect your DNA. The questionnaire and saliva kit will be mailed to you and you will mail it back to the researchers, at no cost to you. The information you provide is confidential and will be kept private.

The researchers need to enroll up to 400 women (150 families with more than one breast cancer survivor) in this study.

Who is conducting the study?

Heather Ochs-Balcom, PhD, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

Where?

Anywhere in the United States, all necessary participation is handled through the mail.

Who can participate?

You can join the Jewels in Our Genes study if you match ALL of these MAIN categories:

• You are a woman older than 18 years of age
• You consider yourself to be Black/African American
• You were diagnosed with breast cancer of any stage, including metastatic disease and DCIS. There is no time limit since diagnosis and it is OK if you are currently receiving treatment.
• You have at least one living female blood relative who was diagnosed with breast cancer of any stage, including metastatic disease and DCIS. The relative can be first degree (mother, daughter, sister) or second degree (cousin, grandparent, aunt or niece). There is no time limit since diagnosis and it is OK if she is currently receiving treatment.
• You have tested negative for the BRCA 1 and 2 mutations (if known). If you do not know your status, you can still participate in the study.
• You live in the United States

After you RSVP, the researcher will ask you additional questions to be sure that this study is a right fit for you.

Visit: http://www.armyofwomen.org/current/view?grant_id=468 for more details on the project.

Image credit: Army of Women

Interactive Role of Stroma in the Development
of Human Breast Carcinoma
A Project Funded by the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation

Principal Investigator: Qing-Xiang (Amy) Sang, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.

According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the second most common cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among American women. The chance of developing invasive breast cancer during a woman's lifetime is approximately 12% (1 in 8). It is estimated that over 250,000 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed and over 40,000 women died from breast cancer in 2009. Currently, there are over 2.5 million breast cancer survivors in the US and they are facing many challenges for the disease treatment and management. The uncertainties associated with a diagnosis of human breast cancer often result in agonizing decisions for patients as radical treatment options such as surgery must be considered in the face of unsure prognoses.

Some of these challenges are due to lack of ideal biomarkers and knowledge that enable us to distinguish the lethal breast cancers from the slow-growing benign tumors; thus, many patients might not have received the optimized care and treatment. Research is urgently needed to identify the high risk patients in a timely manner so they will receive radical and immediate treatment; on the contrary, the low risk patients may receive less therapy and avoid the unnecessary site effects. Knowledge is needed for the early determination of optimal treatment strategy for high risk patients and for the reduction of suffering and psychological and economic burden of patients with low-risk breast cancer. This research project is aimed to make scientific discoveries and advance our knowledge that may be used for personalized therapy and saving lives.

Previous research efforts were focused on the identification biomarkers of human breast cancer epithelial cells for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment; however, investigation of the active role of stromal compartment, which contains the surrounding stromal cells and extracellular matrix proteins or connective tissue proteins, in human breast tumor development and progression in relation to the estrogen receptor (ER) status of epithelial tumor cells must be carried out to identify new stromal biomarkers for early and accurate detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and effective treatment.

To identify novel drug targets and biomarkers for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of breast cancer this project has investigated protein expression profiles of different types of stromal cells, such as endothelial cells (blood vessel inner-lining cells), fibroblasts (cells that make collagens and other proteins), and leukocytes (white blood cells). Our results show that the stromal cells in the estrogen receptor positive(ER+) human breast cancer tissues make many different proteins from those made by the stromal cells in the estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast cancer tissues. According to the protein expression profiles, stromal cells in ER- human breast cancer tissues produce less amount and fewer number of immunoreactive proteins, and tumor suppressor and metastasis suppressor proteins. These results suggest that (ER-) tumors have an immunosuppressed and a more malignant and metastatic phenotype than (ER+) tumors based on stromal cell studies. These novel findings are consistent with the previous reports on the epithelial studies, which demonstrated that ER- cancers are much more advanced and aggressive than ER+ tumors; however, our discoveries challenge the old paradigm that stromal cells in the tumors are almost all normal cells and they respond to tumor cells but do not play an active role in the malignant transformation and cancer progression. Our results reveal that microenvironmental factors such as stromal cells may play an active and interactive role in the process of malignant transformation and tumor progression. This knowledge may suggest that we need to co-target both epithelial and stromal cells to treat and cure human breast cancer.

We must continue to research and discover new knowledge for the early diagnosis and treatment of patients with aggressive cancer and relieve the physical and psychological affliction of patients with benign tumors. Scientists need to make more discoveries and generate more knowledge that will be used for customized medicine and saving lives of cancer patients.

Project CARE Program
is Now Forming a New Group!

The University of Miami Sylvester Cancer Center is currently enrolling participants in a new Project CARE program group.

If you - or a black woman you know (Black Caribbean, Black Latina, African American, African, etc.) in Miami Dade, Broward, or Palm Beach County have completed treatment for breast cancer in the past 6 months, this program is for you.

Participation is confidential and women eligible to enroll in the program will be compensated up to $500.

For more information or to enroll, call the Project CARE office at 305.243.8367.

FBCF Scientific Research Award Update

Pictured above: Alyson Freeman and Dr. Alvaro N. A. Monteiro

Alyson K. Freeman (maiden name Alyson K. Fay) received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Massachusetts in 2002. Afterwards, she worked as a research technician in the laboratory of Dr. Junona Moroianu at Boston College until 2004. She then pursued her graduate degree in the Cancer Biology Ph.D. program at the University of South Florida and conducted research in the laboratory of Dr. Alvaro N. A. Monteiro at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. Three years of her graduate research was funded through a predoctoral award from the Florida Breast Cancer Coalition Research Foundation.

While doing this research with the award from the Florida Breast Cancer Foundation, Alyson has found the following. Cells grow, copy their DNA and eventually divide into two daughter cells. Environmental insults can damage the DNA, causing mutations that can lead to cancer. Cells detect damage to the DNA and stop their normal life cycle so that the DNA may be repaired. It is an important line of defense in protecting the cell from incurring mutations and passing them on to its daughter cells. In a process analogous to a passing of the baton in a relay race, the message that a cell needs to stop its normal cycle is conveyed through a series of proteins in a chain of events known as signal transduction. This message is usually in the form of a phosphate group, which is either tagged onto a protein (phosphorylation) or removed from a protein (dephosphorylation). These tags function as a "STOP" or a "GO" sign for the cell cycle.

A major player in this signaling of damaged DNA is CHK2, a protein that adds tags to other proteins leading to a stopping of the cell cycle. When CHK2 is defective, breast cancer can develop. Some individuals carry defective CHK2 genes and may be at increased risk of developing breast cancer. Thus, it is important to understand how CHK2 is controlled.

They have found that one protein that binds to CHK2 is protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). PP2A can negatively regulate proteins including CHK2. Under normal conditions, PP2A can be found together with CHK2. This interaction keeps CHK2 silent, but after DNA damage they come apart and the separation allows CHK2 to become active telling other proteins to stop the cell cycle. After some time CHK2 and PP2A come together again and CHK2 returns to a quiet state. The cell then returns to its normal life. This interaction of CHK2 and PP2A, revealed in her research, provides a mechanism to understand how CHK2 is kept in check when there is no injury to the DNA and is quickly mobilized when it is needed.

Alyson will continue to conduct cancer research as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Deborah Morrison at the National Cancer Institute. The Florida Breast Cancer Foundation is excited to see what new strides she will make in cancer research.

UM/Sylvester Launches Breast Cancer
Study For Black Women

A team of researchers from the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been awarded a $4 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of stress management in Black women (African American, African, Black Caribbean and Black Hispanic) who have finished breast cancer treatment. Suzanne Lechner, Ph.D., research assistant professor of psychiatry and psychology, is principal investigator of the 5-year UM study. The study is dubbed Project CARE, and according to Lechner, is designed to help women Cope, Adapt, Renew, and Empower one another after breast cancer treatment. Lechner hopes to uncover some of the social and psychological factors that affect survivorship among Black women.

The primary goal of the study is to determine whether a successful stress-management intervention can be effectively implemented in community settings, and to demonstrate that it is efficacious in facilitating positive adaptation to breast cancer among Black women with the disease. Project CARE is dedicated to improving the health and well-being of Black women with breast cancer through the use of well developed group support methods, cancer education, and relaxation training methods.

Project CARE is currently enrolling eligible patients for the October and March group sessions. The women, in addition to being within 6-months of completion of treatment for breast cancer, must self-identify as Black. Participants must meet the eligibility criteria in order to receive compensation. For more information, call the Project CARE office at 305-243-8367.