? Breast Cancer Program The Breast Cancer Program (BC) was an outgrowth of the basic, translational, population and clinical research of the LCCC Breast Cancer SPORE, which has been continuously funded since 1992. LCCC investment in faculty and infrastructure supports one of the country's premier clinical and research breast programs, performing important interdisciplinary research of the past decade with members rising to leadership positions. This knitting together of clinical, basic, and epidemiologic research is the hallmark of the Breast Program, and is reflected in the investment in faculty and resources fostered by including over $10M in genomics/sequencing resources used for institutional as well as large multicenter trials and $7M in CBCS-III, which includes comprehensive biologic, traditional and molecular epidemiology, as well as treatment data and outcomes. This represents the largest and most heavily annotated population-based study ever performed addressing racial disparities in breast cancer, behavior and outcome. Other investments include the rapidly expanding Geriatric Oncology program, which has accrued over 2000 patients to molecular and functional geriatric studies. BC members capitalize on their discovery and understanding of intrinsic breast cancer subtypes to further characterize the distinguishing biological properties of breast cancer heterogeneity. Strategic goals include: 1) population-based studies identifying novel associations with breast cancer risk and hospital-based studies of alterations in normal breast and the breast tumor microenvironment, 2) bench-to-bedside approaches to therapeutics leveraging murine models and human window trials, 3) translational discovery and applied strategies including novel imaging and 4) correlative tissue biomarker studies nested within clinical trials. This mature Program and SPORE infrastructure includes clinicians, imaging innovators, statisticians, bioinformaticians, epidemiologists, and laboratory scientists utilizing the population and a range of models, from genetically engineered mice to the patient on into translational and clinical research protocols. We rely on novel approaches and applications in genomics, proteomics, imaging, informatics and clinical responses to analyze subtype specific biology, detection, metastatic potential and therapeutic efficacy. We perform clinical trials using novel therapeutic regimens, trial designs and biomarkers and we participate and analyze genomically some of the world's largest breast cancer trials. BC has substantial inter-programmatic interactions due to the LCCC's long term interest in North Carolina's minority disparities, following the program's seminal discoveries of the high incidence of TNBC in younger African Americans and surprising finding that the largest survival disparity is in women with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. BC consists of 21 members from 3 different schools and clinicians from 5 specialties. Since 2010, program members have published 503 cancer-related articles (46% collaborative). In 2014, BC members held 53 grants and $10.1M (total cost) in annual extramural funding, including 21 grants and $5.5M (total costs) from the NCI.
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