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UC Irvine Joins Network for Massive Breast Cancer Study

In what could be the biggest study of its kind, the University of California, Irvine’s Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and four other UC schools have joined forces to screen 150,000 California women for breast cancer and then track them for decades.

Named the Athena Breast Health Network, the project aims to identify better ways of treating and preventing a disease that affects roughly 200,000 new women and kills 40,000 a year.

The study currently is funded by grants from the University of California and Safeway Inc.’s foundation, but it will need additional funds in the future, according to university representatives.

“In terms of depth and breadth, from detection to survivorship, this will be the largest study of its kind,” says Hoda Anton-Culver, chair of epidemiology at UC Irvine who is leading the school’s efforts. “It shows that the University of California has the commitment and expertise to do the most advanced and comprehensive research on breast cancer.”

The American Cancer Society estimates the United States spends more than $20 billion a year screening and treating the disease.

The study could eventually lead to more individualized treatments and thus reduce healthcare costs, according to Dennis Carson, director of the University of California, San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center.

“In the long run, this will save money for the UC system and take care of many, many patients,” Carson said.

Project researchers say they aim to generate a rich collection of data that could help them pinpoint genetic markers involved in the disease and how lifestyle behaviors contribute to the cancer. Using a sophisticated computer network, researchers will be able to share their findings and evaluate trends. Unaffiliated researchers also will be able to tap in to the network to do research for their own work.

“This project will standardize the collection of structured data from both patients and physicians so that it is computable, interoperable and reusable,” said Laura Esserman, a University of California, San Francisco, professor who will help lead the project.

Funders

The study, which has been in the works for almost a year, will be funded by a $5.3 million University of California grant and $4.8 million from the Safeway Foundation. The Safeway Foundation has been a major contributor of funds for breast cancer research in the last seven years, with donations of about $60 million.

The UC system hopes their breast cancer research will have the same positive results as the Framingham Heart Study.

The Framingham Heart Study is an ongoing study that started to follow patients in 1948. Much of what doctors know about heart disease today is due to the famous study.

The study, named for the small Massachusetts town where it originated, led to better understanding of risk factors involved in the disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, diabetes and lack of exercise.

“We hope, in a similar fashion, Athena will provide huge amounts of clinical data to allow us to better understand risk assessment and provide better intervention,” said Dr. Barbara Parker, one of the study’s principal investigators and medical director for oncology services at Moores UC San Diego.

The UC system and its affiliates annually screen as many as 80,000 women for breast cancer and diagnose about 2,500 with the disease. UCI screens about 7,500 women a year. Roughly 13,000 women come to UCSD for mammogram screenings a year, Parker said.

The university will rely on a network of clinics and other healthcare facilities to help enroll patients, she said.

Chambers is a staff writer for the San Diego Business Journal. University of California, Irvine, communications department contributed to this article.

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