Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second most common cause of cancer death in U.S. women. Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease with respect to its etiology, prognosis, and response to therapy. Epidemiological studies have convincingly established a number of risk factors for breast cancer.
Investigators at the Channing Division of Network Medicine (CDNM) have built a comprehensive research strategy to:
We apply an interdisciplinary approach to understand breast cancer etiology, heterogeneity, and prognosis.
CDNM breast cancer researchers have made important contributions to our understanding of breast cancer risk factors and survival. These are highlighted in the following publication:
Breast Cancer Research in the Nurses' Health Studies: Exposures Across the Life Course. Rice MS, Eliassen AH, Hankinson SE, Lenart EB, Willett WC, Tamimi RM. Am J Public Health. 2016 Sep;106(9):1592-8. PMCID: PMC4981804
Breast cancer is a multifactorial disease, and CDNM researchers are able to assess a wide range of risk factors, including:
We have collected a wide range of biospecimens, including blood, urine, toenails, stool, mammograms, and archival tissue specimens. This has allowed us to conduct assays for candidate biomarkers, as well as more omics-wide assays:
CDNM scientists leverage archival tissue specimens to better understand breast cancer etiology:
Study populations developed by CDNM investigators to investigate breast cancer and other breast health outcomes, include:
As founding members of the NCI Cohort Consortium, CDNM has led and contributed to many investigations that leverage strength in numbers by joining forces with other cohort studies.
The CDNM breast cancer group leads collaborations, including Discovery, Biology, Risk of Inherited Variants in Breast Cancer (DRIVE), Breast and Prostate Cancer Cohort Consortium (BPC3), Markers of Density Consortium (MODE), and the Diet and Cancer Pooling Project. We also contribute to other large-scale consortia, including Breast Cancer Association Consortium, After Breast Cancer Pooling Project, Collaborative Group on Endogenous Hormones and Breast Cancer, and many others.