Breast Cancer SPORE Grant

Awarded: September 2005, with additional award August 2006
Amount: $11.1 million over five years
Principal Investigator: James N. Ingle, M.D.

"For All Things, A Season" - 2007, Eunice Hill
Quilts of the Women's Cancer Program

Mayo Clinic Cancer Center is one of 11 cancer centers to receive a National Cancer Institute (NCI) Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for breast cancer research. Breast cancer is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer deaths in American women. Each year, more than 200,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer, and nearly 40,000 women die from this disease, reports the American Cancer Society.

Through collaborative efforts across the three Mayo Clinic campuses in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Ariz.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Rochester, Minn.; as well as with investigators at other institutions, the Breast Cancer SPORE research projects combine expertise in molecular biology, cellular signaling, genetics, immunology, pharmacogenomics, epidemiology, pathology, immunotherapy, endocrine therapy, chemotherapy, biostatistics, informatics, and clinical trials methodology to the four translational research projects described throughout these pages. In addition, the SPORE supports developing research and career developmental work.

The Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE has established collaborations with multiple other Breast SPOREs and has extensive collaborations through Mayo's membership in the Translational Breast Cancer Research Consortium (TBCRC), which consists of 14 of the leading breast cancer programs in the United States. The TBCRC was established to conduct highly sophisticated translational breast cancer research studies in the most expeditious manner. The Breast SPORE has also established strong collaborations with the Pharmacogenetics Research Network, which is at the forefront of developing personalized treatment strategies based on genetic variability between patients.

Mayo Clinic, and Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, provides substantial support directly and indirectly to the SPORE, including through supportive development of the Women’s Cancer Program (WCP) and significant facilities and administrative assistance. Some 48 investigators currently are committed to breast cancer research at Mayo Clinic. In addition, 16 Shared Resources provide an infrastructure upon which the Breast SPORE cores can be built and integrated.

As part of the WCP, the key personnel in Mayo Clinic’s Breast Cancer SPORE have an established relationship of working together. The Women’s Cancer Program consists of multidisciplinary teams focusing on four major themes:

• Identification of key genetic alterations underlying women’s cancers
• Definition of key mediators and pathways in the biology of women’s cancers
• Employment of observational study designs to identify subgroups of women at increased risk for breast cancer and gynecologic cancer
• Development and testing of innovative strategies in women’s cancer

The Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE’s mission to perform translational research to reduce the burden of breast cancer is identical with that of the WCP, providing a platform upon which the Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE has been built. The Women’s Cancer Program is a highly interactive program within the Cancer Center, and contains of a large number of intra-programmatic, as well as inter-programmatic, collaborations. The Mayo Clinic Breast Cancer SPORE Director, Dr. Ingle, and Lynn Hartmann, M.D., serve as program co-leaders for the Women’s Cancer Program and have decades of collaboration. The genesis of the translational research efforts in breast cancer at Mayo began in 1994 when Dr. Ingle was awarded an R21 grant to develop a breast cancer research program, and Dr. Hartmann served as co-principal investigator of this grant. The long history of productive collaboration and mentoring of junior investigators continues to this day.

For more information on the Breast SPORE program, please visit these links:

• Projects
• Core Resources
• Developmental Programs