UCs to team up for breast cancer study

UC Irvine will collaborate with other medical centers in the University of California system on a decades-long, statewide study into breast cancer, UCI officials announced Tuesday.

UC San Francisco will spearhead the new Athena Breast Health Network, which will screen an initial 150,000 women for breast cancer and then monitor their health for decades.

“In terms of depth and breadth, from detection to survivorship, this will be the largest study of its kind,” Hoda Anton-Culver, UCI’s project lead, who is also an epidemiology professor and department chairwoman, said in a news release.

“It shows that the University of California has the commitment and expertise to do the most advanced and comprehensive research on breast cancer,” Anton-Culver said. “The data and knowledge we derive from this project will shape breast cancer care in the way the renowned Framingham Heart Study changed the care of patients with heart disease.”

The Framingham cardiovascular study began in 1948, and is now on its third generation of participants. Nearly all of today’s epidemiological knowledge for heart disease, such as the effects of diet, exercise and aspirin, is based on the study.

UCI representatives said that as many as 400,000 women could participate in the breast cancer epidemiology network as it grows.

Along with UCI, the university system’s affiliated medical centers comprise UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, UC Davis and UCLA.

Those campuses and their affiliates screen up to 80,000 women annually for the disease, 2,500 of which are diagnosed, representatives said.

UCI screens about 7,500 women per year.

The project will be supported by a $5.3-million UC grant, as well as a $4.8-million grant by the Safeway Foundation.