UCs launching major long-term breast cancer study
The UC Davis Medical Center is preparing a breast cancer study that will track thousands of women over decades, with a goal of revolutionizing treatment methods.
UC officials said Tuesday that five UC Cancer Centers are collaborating on the long-term study the Athena breast health network which initially will follow 150,000 women now being screened for breast cancer throughout California.
"This is the first big collaboration between the UC Cancer Centers," said Ralph deVere White, director of the UC Davis Cancer Center. "We want to use cutting-edge information technology to try to put together as complete of a record for these patients anybody has ever gathered."
Nationwide, more than 44,000 women die each year of breast cancer, while 200,000 are diagnosed. The American Cancer Society says breast cancer is the most common form of the disease in women.
White said he hopes the study will do for breast cancer what the renowned Framingham Heart Study has done for heart disease. That study has identified many risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as hypertension, high cholesterol and cigarette smoking.
Researchers said they expect a rich harvest of data.
"Since we're adding all patients at the five cancer centers into Athena, we're going to accumulate information very quickly," White said. He said the study's size will provide statistical power to help answer such questions as why some ethnic groups are more likely to get breast cancer.
The project also is expected to yield more personalized cancer treatments. Researchers hope to combine genetic data from the new study with existing research on why some individuals react differently to treatments.
"As researchers and patients, we all wonder when research will be ready for the general population," said Tianhong Li, assistant professor of hematology and oncology who will lead UC Davis' Athena effort. "We're going to be providing the infrastructure to integrate research into patient care."
For example, Athena could help stratify breast cancer patients so women who would not benefit from chemotherapy do not need to suffer through it.
The project should be ready to start collecting data next year, Li said. Researchers do not know how long the study will last but hope it will span many years.
Cancer centers involved in the project with UC Davis are at UC San Francisco, UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine. Also participating are UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, the Northern California Cancer Center, Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, the National Cancer Center Institute's Big Health Consortium and the Center for Medical Technology Policy.
The study is initially funded by a $5.3 million University of California grant and a $4.8 million Safeway Foundation grant.