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Bay Area Breast Cancer and the Environment Research
Center
The Bay Area Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Center
(BABCERC) is one of four research centers created by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) to investigate potential environmental factors
that could lead to breast cancer. Zero Breast Cancer’s role is
to lead the Community Outreach and Translational Core (COTC).
The Center is a collaborative effort among Bay Area institutions,
researchers, scientists and advocacy groups to harness the expertise
in the region and work together to better understand the causes
of breast cancer and what can be done to prevent it.
Initially, there will be two main areas of research focus. One
project will study how the developmental steps of the mammary gland
and use mouse models to test the effects of exposure to potential
environmental stressors. The second project will be to conduct an
epidemiological study of the determinants of puberty in girls. Attention
will be paid to understanding the shift toward earlier puberty among
adolescent girls, the identification of environmental exposures
in young girls, and the interplay between genetic polymorphisms
and environmental exposures that may put them at risk for future
breast cancer.
One of the strengths of the Center will be its commitment to communicate
its efforts with the local community. Zero Breast Cancer
will lead the Community Outreach and Translational Core (COTC),
which seeks to facilitate two-way communication between scientists
and the community.
The effort to a secure a Center in the Bay Area started last year
after Zero Breast Cancer co-hosted a town hall meeting with the
UC Berkeley NIEHS Center titled: “Voices for a Healthy Community:
Breast Cancer and the Environment.” The town hall created
a dialogue between scientists and the community on breast cancer,
identified areas of future breast cancer research, and created opportunities
for further collaboration among cancer groups, concerned health
professionals, scientists, public policy advocates, government officials
and community members.
At the town hall, NIEHS Director Dr. Kenneth Olden announced the
agency would award funding for centers in the coming year. A Bay
Area group soon formed and began drafting a proposal. Shortly thereafter,
Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) helped secure a commitment from four
federal health agencies to study Marin County’s breast cancer rate
and allocate resources for the effort.
The Research Center and the other centers in a national network
supported by the NIH will focus attention on adolescence, a vulnerable
period of breast development thought to play a critical role in
the future development of breast cancer.
The BABCERC has a broad group of collaborators, including the
University of California, San Francisco; Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratories; Kaiser Permanente; California DHS; Zero Breast Cancer; San Francisco DHHS; the Marin County Health Department; and
Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
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