A team of researchers at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has been awarded $1.5 million from the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, to help fund two studies targeting women at high risk for developing breast cancer and look for molecular markers in the blood that could indicate increased risk for the disease.

The research will also investigate disparities in modifiable risk factors for breast cancer and may help uncover reasons for the higher mortality from breast cancer among African-American women.

The first study funded under this grant will take a look at the protein level in blood samples from 200 African-American and Caucasian women at high risk and 200 at low risk for developing breast cancer. Serum proteomic profiles will be compared between the two groups. "Our long-term hope is that eventually it may be possible to develop a blood test to identify women at high risk for breast cancer so that measures can be developed to prevent the cancer from occurring or to identify it early enough when it is more readily treatable," said William Blot, Ph.D., professor of Medicine and project coordinator.

The second study funded by the grant will examine demographic, lifestyle, medical and genetic profiles for obesity among African-American and Caucasian women. Researchers say the study will provide some of the most extensive data available on the characteristics of obesity, a recognized risk factor for breast cancer among post-menopausal women. Blood samples from 1,000 African-American and 1,000 Caucasian women will be examined to identify biomarkers related to obesity. "We'll look at about 21 different genes related to the risk of obesity," said Blot.

Charles Mathews, Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine is the principal investigator on the energy balance study. "This work will allow us to characterize the environmental and genetic factors that contribute to increased risk for weight gain in adulthood and obesity. Excessive weight gain and obesity are believed to increase risk breast cancer mortality," he said.

The two studies benefiting from this funding will both draw on data already collected from participants enrolled in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS). The ongoing, large-scale study of cancer and other disease disparities is funded by the National Cancer Institute and being conducted by Vanderbilt in collaboration with the Meharry Medical College and International Epidemiology Institute.

An unprecedented 60,000 people have signed on to the SCCS to date, with 90 percent providing blood or DNA samples, making it possible for this type of research to be conducted. The SCCS has set a goal to recruit nearly 100,000 residents of the southern United States, age 40 to 79, approximately 70 percent of whom will be African-American, to try to explain disparities in cancer and care and prevent the disease.

SOURCES:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu)