NCI Radio Broadcast Transcript - Breast Cancer Stem Cells May be Key to Multi-drug Resistance

New Breast Cancer Committee to Establish Federal Research Agenda

Brief Description:

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute, announced the appointment of 19 members to the newly formed Interagency Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Coordinating Committee (IBCERCC). Established by the Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act of 2008, the Committee will develop and coordinate a strategic federal research agenda on environmental and genetic factors related to breast cancer. The first meeting of the IBCERCC will take place Sept. 30 – Oct. 1, 2010 in the Washington, D.C. area.

Transcript:

Akinso: A newly formed advisory committee will develop and coordinate a strategic federal research agenda on environmental and genetic factors related to breast cancer.

Collman: This committee came at the result of the breast cancer and the environment research act of 2008.

Akinso: Dr. Gwen Collman is the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Acting Director of the Division of Extramural Research and Training.

Collman: Congress directed that Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to bring together the federal agencies that were involved with breast cancer research to discuss the ongoing work related to the topic of breast cancer in the environment.

Akinso: The Interagency Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Coordinating Committee will develop recommendations for the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, and other federal agencies, to improve existing research programs related to breast cancer research.

Collman: What this committee will do is bring together federal scientists, scientists from the committee at large in a number of different areas and breast cancer advocates to talk about the research that is currently being conducted on breast cancer in the environment and look to the literature and to the future to see what kinds of scientific opportunities there might be to develop continuing research efforts in this area.

Akinso: The 19-member committee will have their first meeting September 30-October 1, 2010 in the Washington, DC area. For more information, visit www.niehs.nih.gov. This is Wally Akinso at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.