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Description of the Center In 2002, it is estimated that 203,500 women (and 1500 men) in the United States will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,000 will die from the disease. Of these new tumors more than 60,000 will not contain the protein that binds estrogen, the so-called estrogen receptor (ER). The central focus of this Center of Excellence (COE) is the clinical problem of how to prevent and treat ER-Negative breast cancer. Our overall idea is that these tumors represent one or more distinct breast cancer subtypes and that an understanding of the causal factors and critical pathways involved in the growth and malignant behavior of these tumors will ultimately lead to improvements in their prevention and treatment. We perceive this to be an important clinical problem and our consumer members have reinforced this from their perspective. In testimony before a Senate committee last year, the former Director of the NCI, Richard Klausner, highlighted the need to address this type of breast cancer as a priority. We received funding from the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program for Breast Cancer for this COE and feel it addresses a major problem in breast cancer research and that its creation is timely. Given the complexity of the problem, the integrated efforts of a multidisciplinary team of investigators and of consumer advocates will be necessary to make significant progress. We have drawn investigators from across the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC) institutions and have enlisted important collaborators from both the Yale Medical School and the Whitehead Institute. To fully exploit the synergies created by its formation, the COE will make extensive use of technology including the internet. In addition the COE will optimize the utilization of resources by leveraging the considerable infrastructure already in place for breast cancer research across the DF/HCC including the Nurses' Health Study and the NCI-funded DF/HCC Breast Cancer SPORE. The COE is organized into six component Projects that are supported by two Cores. These projects span epidemiology, pathology, functional genomics, cancer cell biology, preclinical drug development, and chemoprevention. The overall aim of the COE is to understand the causes and critical pathways underlying the development of ER- breast cancer in order to develop novel strategies for prevention and treatment. Sources of Funding This center is supported primarily by a Department of the Army
Center of Winter/Spring 2003 Turning Point story(ITI) OBJECTIVES To reinforce our commitment to using state of the art technologies to foster synergy within the COE, we have developed a Communications Core. This core will be responsible for providing critical infrastructure for the COE including Communications, Biostatistics, Informatics, Consumer Advocate integration, and Administration. The Biostatistics group will provide consultation and collaboration on quantitative methods on all COE projects. Queries from any COE member will be addressed by means of informal, "open-door", short-term statistical consultation. Typical queries might include statistical references; nonparametric and parametric sample size approximations for simple studies, statistical tests on small data sets, and answering questions on computer packages. Most of these queries will receive immediate response. Each project will be assigned to one statistician, who will be in charge of coordinating biostatistical expertise for the planning, conduct, analysis, and reporting of laboratory, animal, clinical, and epidemiologic studies done by that project. The project assignments will be based primarily on matching the statistical methodology required by a project to the particular expertise of the statistician. The Biostatistics group will also provide consultation on computer databases, methods for transferring data between databases, statistical computer packages, and other computational software of potential interest. The Biostatistics group will serve as a resource during the planning process of experiments and clinical trials by providing oversight for data collection and storage. Matt Temple and the staff of Research Computing at the Dana-Farber are available to support the COE. This staff consists of: 1) Director--responsible for computing environment, growth and direction; 2) Bioinformatics/web support (1 fte); 3) Macintosh Manager (1 fte); 4) Desktop/technical support (2 fte); 5) Student coops (2.5 fte). Research Computing maintains 2.4 terabytes of Raid 5 file server space, and can respond quickly to necessary increases in server storage needs. Backup of data is accomplished with tape libraries, AIT tape drives, and Legato Networker Software. Servers support Macintosh, PC, and Unix/Linux computers. Research Computing maintains a web server for DFCI Research internal use and for the purpose of hosting individual lab web sites. Research computing supports site licenses for analysis software and access to proprietary databases including GeneSpring, Celera, Incyte. DNAStar, GCG, and dChip. Monthly Meetings and Annual Retreat The members of the COE will meet on a monthly basis to update the status of the various projects and to allow full integration with of the Consumer Advocates into the COE. This meeting will include not only the principal investigators, but also all appropriate personnel from involved in the project. As one of the collaborators, Dr. Ghosh, is not located in Boston, Video Conferencing is available to the COE. This is supported through the infrastructure of the DF/HCC. The members of the COE will also present their work at an annual retreat. This will be held in Boston unless additional support from other sources can be raised to support a retreat at a distant site. The aims for the retreat will be to critically evaluate the progress made by all of the component projects and cores and to allow for an extended interaction between the investigators and Consumer Advocates. Administration As PI Dr. Brown will be responsible for the oversight of the COE. He will be assisted by Financial Coordinators, Jarod Kohr and Daniel Castellano. While possessing independent research goals, the COE will not duplicate administrative structures but will take advantage whenever possible of the existing DF/HCC Breast Program and SPORE administrative resources. This lean administrative structure for the COE will allow the maximal use of the available resources to support the Projects. COLLABORATORS M. V. Patricia Bernardo, Sc.D.- Dr. Bernardo is a Research Scientist, Department of Biostatistical Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Department of Biostatistics, Harvard School of Public Health. She will direct the Biostatistics component of the Communications Core (Core 2). Email: bernardo@jimmy.harvard.edu Judi Hirshfield-Bartek, RN, MS, OCN - Ms. Hirshfield-Bartek has been an oncology nurse since 1978. She is the past Chair of the Access Task Force of the National Breast Cancer Coalition and Chairs the Legislative Committee of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition. She is a past President of the Boston Chapter of the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) and was the first recipient of the National ONS Research Award in 1982. She will serve as the Chair of the Consumer Advisory Committee (Core 2). Email: judibartek@rcn.com Myles A. Brown, M.D. - Dr. Brown Associate Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Women's Cancer's Program and the DF/HCC Breast Cancer Program. His lab focus is on the role of coregulators in nuclear receptor function. He will serve as Principal Investigator of the COE. In addition he will serve as a co-investigator on Project 6 and a collaborator on Projects 2 and 3. Email: Myles_Brown@dfci.harvard.edu Carol Matyka- Ms. Matyka is a breast cancer survivor and serves on the board of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition as well as C.A.R.E. Advocates at New England Medical Center. She is a graduate of the National Breast Cancer Coalition1s Project Lead, and has served as both a peer reviewer and a programmatic reviewer for the DOD BCRP. Email: camatyka@yahoo.com Matthew Temple, B.A., M.S.- Mr. Temple is the Director of Research Computing, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (http://research.dfci.harvard.edu/). He will be responsible for facilitating communications between the members of the COE and will host and maintain the COE web site (Core 2). Email: Matthew_Temple@dfci.harvard.edu Eric P. Winer, M.D. - Dr. Winer is Associate Professor of Medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School. He is the Director of the Breast Oncology Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He will serve as a collaborator to the Communications Core (Core 2) and will facilitate the translation of findings of the COE to clinical trials. Email: EWINER@PARTNERS.ORG USEFUL LINKS Department
of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program
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