Testing Intervention Strategies for the Primary Prevention of Breast Cancer: Phase I

This initiative aims to fill gaps in evidence about the effectiveness of community-level intervention strategies for a priority set of breast cancer risk factors detailed in Paths to Prevention, the California Breast Cancer Primary Prevention Plan. This initiative has two components:

• Component 1 will fund the assessment of innovative but untested intervention strategies that have been or are being implemented in California communities, as defined by geography, culture, racial/ethnic composition or shared experience or goals, to address breast cancer risk factors from Paths to Prevention.
• Component 2 tests new and integrated intervention strategies that specifically address chemical exposures and other factors, to reduce occupational and/or environmental exposures as well as aligns with broader community concerns.

CBCRP is sponsoring Request for Proposals (RFP) for Component 1 Full Awards and Component 2 Pilot Awards. Component 2 Full Awards will be offered in a separate RFP. Any individual or organization in California may submit an application. The research must be conducted primarily in California.

Download the RFP below:

Full Request for Proposals (RFP)

Application materials are available through CBCRP's SmartSimple application and grant management system.

Applications must be submitted by 12:00 pm PT on Wednesday, April 6, 2022. (Deadline Extended)

INFORMATIONAL WEBINARS

CBCRP offers online webinars for program-directed initiative funding opportunities. Join us for a description of the grant opportunity, and for engaging discussions on getting started and navigating the application materials. The webinars will be archived, but you are encouraged to sign up and participate in the live session.

Register for a webinar below:

WEBINAR REGISTRATION

ARCHIVED WEBINARS

The CBCRP records webinars that are held for potential applicants. We will make webinars available here in the 'Archived Webinars' section.

For questions or more information, contact CBCRP Program Officer Senaida Fernandez Poole, Ph.D. at senaida.poole@ucop.edu.

Specific Aims and Activities

Component 1

Component 1 is an assessment of an existing but untested intervention strategy that has been or is being implemented in California communities to address priority breast cancer risk factors from Paths to Prevention. The priority risk factors relate to harmful environmental and occupational exposures and/or the special risks faced by racial or ethnic minority groups in California. The research could be conducted in the community where the intervention strategy was first implemented or in other communities where the intervention strategy could be replicated. The outcome of interest is community-wide change in indicator(s) of exposure to risk factors identified in Paths to Prevention, within a three-year project period.

The research should focus on an existing and innovative community partnered intervention strategy that has not yet been rigorously assessed for the magnitude of effect on breast cancer risk factors and the elements responsible for the effect. The priority risk factors and the focus of associated intervention goals of special interest are:

• Breastfeeding
  • reduce cultural barriers
• Chemicals in consumer products
  • disclose, restrict, or remove chemicals
  • counter discriminatory concepts of beauty
• Occupational exposures
  • implement workplace policies and practices to control exposures
  • eliminate hazardous chemicals, workers take actions to protect themselves
• Place-based chemicals
  • build capacity for people to win greater protection
  • ensure water free from chemicals linked to breast cancer
  • reduce exposures to air pollutants
  • reduce exposures to harmful exposures and pesticides in public places

Component 2

Component 2 will have two phases: Phase I offered now as a Pilot Award, and Phase II to be offered at a later date as a Full Award. Pilot Award funding is not required for Full Award funding.

Component 2 will test a new, integrated intervention strategy that addresses chemical exposures in relation to broader social contextual factors, to reduce occupational and/or environmental exposures as well as improve and promote overall health and wellness. The intervention to be tested, which could be a modification to an existing intervention strategy not yet implemented in California, should be conducted within a cohort of women with shared workplace and/or place-based exposure to harmful chemicals or ionizing radiation. The integrated intervention strategy should address intervention goals related to occupational and/or place-based exposures, within the context of the first two risk factors in Paths to Prevention: race, power, and inequities; and the social and built environment. The outcomes of interest are reduction in cohort-wide harmful exposures for breast cancer and improvement in cohort-wide measures of health (improvements in health behaviors or a reduction in the prevalence or severity of a chronic health condition), within a five-year project period.

For Component 2, an integrated intervention, the strategies to be tested should attempt to reduce harmful exposures and promote health in a community by addressing a combination of chemical and other risk factors from Paths to Prevention. The priority risk factors, and the focus of associated intervention goals of special interest, are:

• Race, power, and inequities
  • build power and capacity to drive societal change
  • expand culturally appropriate education and awareness
  • endorse and support movements that address discrimination, marginalization, and oppression
• Social and built environment
  • develop safe walk, bicycle and public friendly cities to enhance physical activity and reduce transit-related pollution
  • ensure low-income housing is free from pollutants
  • accessible and safe indoor and outdoor recreation spaces
• Occupation
  • make workplaces safer
    • eliminate hazardous chemicals and practices from workplaces, with an emphasis on breast cancer risks
    • focus on actions specific workforces (such as salon workers and janitorial workers) can take to protect themselves immediately
  • Place-based chemicals
    • reduce exposures to harmful exposures and pesticides in public places

Project requirements

The research teams for both the Component 1 Full Award and the Component 2 Pilot Award must include representative described below working collaboratively throughout the project:

• At least one California-based community organization (formal or informal)
• Community members, including patients, clients or interested people
• At least one experienced academic researcher working in California in an appropriate discipline and setting

Funded teams that have not completed QuickStart, CBCRP’s community partnered participatory research (CPPR) technical support program, will be required to complete the program during the 2022-23 fiscal year.

Each application must include a dissemination plan that includes methods to ensure the implementation of findings.

Project duration and budget cap

CBCRP intends to fund up to two Component 1 Full Awards.

• Maximum direct cost budget: $825,000
• Project duration: 3 years

CBCRP intends to fund up to two Component 2 Pilot Awards.

• Maximum direct cost budget: $210,000
• Project duration: 1 year