Breast Cancer Research Program

ABSTRACT: 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 in the past decade with members rising to national 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, in the last 5 years, over $10M in genomics/sequencing resources used for institutional as well as large multicenter trials. This commitment is reflected in patient-facing institutional trials examining clinical implications of breast cancer subtypes as well as LCCC leadership of collaborative tissue-based studies through the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC) and AURORA-US Project (https://auroraus.org), a multicenter, multiplatform analysis of DNA, RNA, and other alterations in metastases compared with matched primary tumors. The longitudinal and exceptional investment in the Carolina Breast Cancer Studies (CBCS) represents the largest and most heavily annotated population-based study ever performed addressing differences in breast cancer, behavior and outcome. CBCS has received an additional $5M investment in this cycle and is providing the community with an increased understanding of the full range of breast cancer research from genomics /genetics to health services. Program strategic goals include: 1) genomic and genetic analyses of metastatic and primary breast cancers, 2) bench-to-bedside approaches using murine models, 3) translational discovery and strategies based on human tissue-based correlative science, 4) clinical trials and population-based studies leveraging and applying UNC science and community input to address the root causes of differences. BC members include clinicians, basic researchers, statisticians, bioinformaticians, epidemiologists, and health services scientists. The BC Program consists of 21 members who are associated with 10 basic science and 5 clinical departments at UNC-Chapel Hill and affiliated institutions. During the last funding period, program members published 494 cancer-related articles, of which 56% were inter-programmatic and 15% were intra-programmatic (57% collaborative). In 2019, our program members held grants totaling $8.1M (direct cost) in cancer-relevant extramural funding, including $4.0M (direct costs) from the NCI and $1.8M other peer-reviewed funding.