‘Write your congressman or woman. Tell them it is imperative they keep this [the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program] research funded. Nobody else does this.’

Breast Cancer Research: Entering An Era Of Hope

By Nancy K. Crevier

“There is so much to be excited for,” says Marty LaMarche of her recent involvement in the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program’s Era of Hope symposium held June 8–11 at the Philadelphia Convention Center.

As a consumer reviewer for the DOD BCRP, Ms LaMarche had traveled to Washington, D.C., in August of 2002, where a panel consisting of herself, two other consumer reviewers (lay cancer experts with firsthand knowledge of the disease), and 20 scientists reviewed 60 breast cancer research proposals.

The BCRP is a program that unites military, scientific, medical, and breast cancer survivors, as well as advocacy communities, in developing research to end breast cancer.

The Era of Hope meeting gave Ms LaMarche the opportunity to hear the results of the research she has continually reviewed for the past three years. One of the stipulations of research funded by the DOD is that the results must be presented to the public.

Says Ms LaMarche, “They want scientists to have public contact. It helps scientists put a face on their research.”

The research selected by the panel is cutting edge in nature and the DOD is the only program that funds this kind of research. It is, according to Ms LaMarche, a breast cancer survivor, research that if successful, “can move breast cancer research light years ahead.”

What she found at the June symposium was a new perspective on how scientists are approaching the issue of breast cancers.

“This is the first time I heard of breast cancer referred to as the ‘spectrum of breast cancer diseases,’” she said. “You’re not just looking for a lump.”

Scientists, she continued, are starting to believe they have been treating symptoms, and not the disease. One of the lines of investigation that Ms LaMarche found intriguing referred to tumors as abnormal organs coming from abnormal cells. What it means is that cancer cannot be halted unless the abnormal stem cells are killed. Scientists are now beginning to think this is one reason why cancer can recur in other parts of the body despite conventional treatment, she explained.

Nanotechnological applications in which ultrasmall particles deliver drugs into spaces previously not accessible are being actively researched, as scientists delve into the stem-cell implications.

Not all of the consumers present appreciated the new tack being taken by scientists. Ms LaMarche overheard one of the longterm survivors exclaim in exasperation, “Great. I feel like we’re starting over.”

“To me,” Ms LaMarche counters, “it’s like: I don’t dwell on the past. When I hear ‘This is the way to attack this,’ and scientists are excited, I feel excited.”

Other remarkable breakthroughs to breast cancer treatment, such as gene silencing systems and phase contrast imaging of cellular components, were presented to the conventiongoers, who Ms LaMarche estimates numbered more than 1,000. Experimental handheld screening devices that would allow women to perform their own “mammograms” at home, the role of exercise in breast cancer recovery, and genetic profiling technologies allowing researchers to identify different breast cancer “types” were just a few of the 1,200 other projects and presentations touched on at this gathering.

Because the input of patients, survivors, and others affected by this research is highly valued, consumer recruitment is ongoing. Cancer survivors who are interested in becoming consumer reviewers can log onto cdmrp.army.mil/bcrp/era/default.htm for information on doing so.

Hearing the repeated mantra, “210,000 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year in the US, and 40,000 will die of the disease,” was a constant reminder of the importance of the outside-the-box research being undertaken, says Ms LaMarche. “It seemed every other speaker started out with that [statistic].”

That being said, the most important message she believes she returns home with is the importance of continuing this unique research.

“Write your congressman or woman. Tell them it is imperative they keep this [the Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program] research funded. Nobody else does this.”