The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded $12.7 million in first-year funding to five specialized groups for research on breast and prostate cancer. The five-year grants will be used to conduct research in a wide range of areas involving the prevention, early detection, and treatment for both types of cancers.

The five new initiatives, described below, are funded through a type of grant called SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence) that supports innovative, multidisciplinary, translational research which may have an immediate impact on improving cancer care and prevention.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, led by Marc A. Shuman, M.D., will develop several projects specifically designed to improve treatment for advanced prostate cancer. One project will identify new prostate cancer target antigens for therapy while another will focus on identifying gene alterations and modifier genes that are responsible for the development and progression of prostate cancer. A related project will concentrate on improved treatment for the disease. First-year funding is $2.3 million.

James Dirk Iglehart, M.D., will lead a collaborative effort involving six of the seven institutions at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center--the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital, all in Boston, Massachusetts--that will study genetic aspects of breast cancer. Scientists will develop functional assays for known breast cancer susceptibility genes, look for new breast cancer susceptibility genes, use both cell lines and mice to understand the molecular biology of the disease, and develop inhibitors for genes involved in disease progression. First-year funding is $2.6 million.

Program Director V. Craig Jordan, Ph.D., will lead a team at Northwestern University's Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center that will study the role of diet and hormones in the prevention and development of breast cancer. Other projects will look at the molecular biology of antiestrogens and the molecular mechanism of drug resistance to these therapies. First-year funding is $2.6 million.

Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine were awarded a breast cancer SPORE grant, under the leadership of Nancy Davidson, M.D. Projects include the development of molecular markers involved in the classification and progression of the disease, as well as molecular strategies to improve breast cancer detection, prevention, and therapy. One strategy will be to examine vaccines for prevention and another will study DNA demethylating and histone deacetylating agents for treatment of the disease. First-year funding is $2.7 million.

Kirby I. Bland, M.D., and researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will focus on a broad range of breast cancer projects involving the development of novel retinoids for chemoprevention, the mechanism of tamoxifen resistance, and new treatment options using gene therapy, DNA vaccines and radioimmunotherapy techniques. First-year funding is $2.5 million.

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