American Cancer Society—Response to the Puzzle Project Campaign
Re: American Cancer Society Response
From: Society.Response@cancer.org
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004
Thank you for your thoughtful message about breast cancer research. We at the American Cancer Society share your passion for eliminating the disease as a major health threat, and we have devoted significant time, energy, and resources to this effort. In fact, the Society is the nation’s largest private, nonprofit source of cancer research funding, and we currently support 179 breast cancer research projects totaling more than $98 million in funding.
While it is true that breast cancer incidence rates continue to increase as a result of more effective detection methods and changing lifestyle patterns, it is also true that mortality rates have declined each year since 1990. Breast cancer is still a significant health threat, but groundbreaking research efforts such as those supported by the American Cancer Society are paying rich dividends.
We are proud of the Society’s unique niche as a funder of young investigators with innovative ideas, and our intramural and extramural grants program is one of the most respected in the nation. While we fill a different research niche than many other organizations, we are strenuous in our efforts to stay abreast of other groups’ projects to avoid duplication of effort and to ensure that we work in unison to achieve the maximum return on our research investment.
By focusing our efforts where they are likely to make the most significant difference, we have funded landmark breakthroughs in breast cancer prevention, early detection, and treatment. Society-funded projects run the gamut from investigating more effective treatments to identifying lifesaving prevention and early detection techniques, from researching the causes of disparities to exploring the environmental factors affecting breast cancer risk.
We wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the most pressing questions facing breast cancer researchers, and that’s why we are working so diligently in the specific areas you identified. For example:
Society-funded research in the field of genomics is helping scientists understand the differences between individual cancers and how to treat each patient’s cancer in the right way and at the right time.
Targeted therapies are a crux of the Society’s national research program. For example, the discoverers of both Herceptin and tamoxifen were funded by the Society, and we continue to fund investigations into effective, less toxic therapies that zero in on cancer cells and leave healthy cells unharmed.
The Society is currently collaborating with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences on the Sister Study, a nationwide study to learn about the environmental and genetic causes of breast cancer. The study will follow 50,000 women for 10 years whose sisters have had breast cancer to collect valuable information about genes, lifestyle, and environmental factors that may contribute to the disease.
Eliminating disparities in the breast cancer burden is an overarching goal of the American Cancer Society. Our organizational goal is to reduce incidence and mortality and to increase survivorship among socioeconomically disadvantaged people to levels comparable to the general population. In addition to funded research, the Society also works toward this goal through ambitious education, advocacy, and patient services efforts.
As you can see, the American Cancer Society is deeply committed to the fight against breast cancer, and we applaud your interest in and dedication to the cause. By continuing to work together to support cutting-edge research, to inspire lifesaving prevention and early detection, and to offer life-affirming services to people in need, we can all look forward to a future in which breast cancer no longer threatens the people we love.
Sincerely,
Harmon Eyre, MD
Chief Medical Officer
American Cancer Society