Early Detection

EIF has assembled a group of nationally and internationally recognized scientists and clinicians, including three Nobel laureates, collaborating in a groundbreaking research project focused on a single objective: to discover biomarkers that can detect cancer at an early stage when survival rates are highest. EIF’s Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project is a multi-year effort to find a biomarker – a unique protein – that would reveal the presence of breast cancer in a blood test to provide early detection of the disease, and ultimately change the way physicians are able to forecast many types of cancers before they become life-threatening. Never before has a group of this caliber collaborated on such an ambitious biomarker study, bringing together experts in the fields of proteomics, informatics and clinical breast cancer care. EIF’s Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project’s vision for progress is shared internationally by scientific leaders: support and momentum are growing for the development of biomarker discovery.

Scientists conceptualize the project in three stages:

• Stage one: develop and apply cutting-edge technologies to examine blood, tissue and breast fluids to identify hundreds of biomarker candidates. Close collaboration by the project’s clinical breast cancer experts and technology leaders is critical to success.
• Stage two: develop assays (tests) to measure the biomarkers at very low concentrations in blood. Technology breakthroughs to make assay development simpler and less expensive are critical to this process.
• Stage three: confirm the presence of the most promising biomarkers in hundreds of blood samples from healthy women and women with breast cancer.

EIF and its Women’s Cancer Research Fund led the way to bring about the Breast Cancer Biomarker Discovery Project, the first study of its kind conducted across expert labs sharing methods and data and using common blood and tissue samples. EIF’s commitment to invest in this project has catalyzed significant progress toward the development of a biomarker-based test for breast cancer detection, which has the potential to directly improve patient care.

Additionally, EIF has helped Christina Applegate launch Right Action for Women to provide educational and financial support to young women who are facing the risk of breast cancer due to a family history of the disease or genetic predisposition.  Through the Right Action for Women website, Applegate wants to help young women understand their risk and to help those who are at high risk know their screening options, including breast MRI, in an effort to detect cancer at the earliest stage. Visit www.rightactionforwomen.org.