$450,000 Grant is Part of Komen’s $66 Million 2011 Global Research Portfolio
CINCINNATI – September 1, 2011 – University of Cincinnati scientists will seek to uncover why many breast cancer patients’ tumors become resistant to treatment over time, and will attempt to develop new treatments for these patients, with funding announced today by Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.
The $450,000 grant is part of Komen for the Cure’s $66 million investment in new research, patient support and scientific conferences in 2011. Komen has spent more than $685 million for breast cancer research in its 29 years, making it the largest non-profit funder of breast cancer research outside of the federal government.
“Our research investments are geared to bringing results to the table – and soon – for the most important questions in breast cancer,” said Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, Komen founder and CEO.
The research by Xiaoting Zhang Ph.D., will attempt to understand the factors that make treatments for HER2 and ER-positive forms of breast cancer less effective over time for some women. The team then will attempt to develop a drug delivery system using nanotechnology, or extremely small particles that can carry the drug into the tumor cells, resulting in a more efficient method to deliver therapy to tumors.
“This research into new methods of drug delivery and more effective long-term treatment ties squarely to our mission to fund cutting-edge breast cancer research along the entire cancer continuum – from prevention to early diagnostics, disparities in outcomes, more effective treatments, and answers for aggressive and metastatic disease,” said Komen President Elizabeth Thompson.
The research announced by Komen today augments local funding totaling more than $6.2 million in the past 13 years from Komen’s Greater Cincinnati Affiliate for community education, screening and treatment programs. Seventy-five percent of funds raised by the Affiliate stays in the community for screening, treatment, education and support programs; the rest helps fund national research programs.
“The projects we’re investing in today are critical to the momentum we’ve built during the last 30 years in our quest to understand, and ultimately solve, the many questions surrounding breast cancer,” said Eric Winer, M.D., Komen’s chief scientific advisor, chief of the Division of Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard University.
*All grants and awards are contingent upon receipt of a fully executed agreement.
