Message from the Director
“The purpose of the CBCRP's investment in breast cancer research is to speed the day when we can prevent the majority of breast cancer, and cure what we can't prevent. That day is coming.”
During 2001, the California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) awarded $18,369,080 for 66 single- and multiple-year research projects at 32 California institutions. Over our eight-year history, the CBCRP has awarded more than $100 million in research grants to investigators throughout the state.
This Annual Report is part of our wide-ranging efforts to make our research available to the public. On these pages, we give brief summaries of the studies we funded this year, along with summaries of studies we funded in previous years that were completed or made progress during 2001. We are one of the few research programs in the world to publish annual summaries of studies while they are still in progress.
We know that breast cancer is a varied and highly complex disease—a puzzle made up of millions of pieces. Much of the research we have supported to date has examined individual pieces of this puzzle, studying the molecular, genetic, and cellular mechanisms by which breast cancer arises and develops. As we examine the pieces, we will be able to put some of them together and use the picture that emerges to teach us how to prevent and cure breast cancer.
The need is urgent. Every two hours, on average, a California woman dies of breast cancer. More than 200,000 California women are living with the disease. Every woman is at risk, and every woman who has had breast cancer in the past lives with the knowledge that it can return at any time.
Breast cancer activists have played a leading role in the CBCRP from the beginning. They helped write and pass the statewide legislation that created the program in 1993. Women with breast cancer and survivors of the disease are involved in all levels of the CBCRP's decision making, including decisions about which research projects get funded. With input from these advocates, the CBCRP has established a record for funding cutting-edge studies and jump-starting new areas of research.
The purpose of the CBCRP's investment in breast cancer research is to speed the day when we can prevent the majority of breast cancer, and cure what we can't prevent. That day is coming.
