BCERP
Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Program
The Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP), a joint effort co-funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is the next phase of a program that began with the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Centers (BCERC) in 2003. The BCERP supports a multidisciplinary network of scientists, clinicians, and community partners to examine the effects of environmental exposures that may predispose a woman to breast cancer throughout her life. The network engages both laboratory and population-based research to study puberty and other “windows of susceptibility” or specific time periods when the developing breast may be more vulnerable to environmental exposures.
The program has three parallel efforts: the Puberty Study, an ongoing multi-site epidemiologic cohort study with more than 1200 young girls that is looking at determinants of pubertal maturation; the Windows of Susceptibility studies, (laboratory and epidemiological) addressing environmental influences on breast cancer risk throughout the lifespan; and a Coordinating Center with responsibility for organization and communications for the BCERP, and serving as a central repository and clearinghouse for cross-site data in the Puberty studies.
Outreach Materials
Video - Of Mice and Women: Modeling Breast Cancer and the Environment - In the “Of Mice and Women” video Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at New York University Langone School of Medicine, describes why and how different types of mouse models are used in experimental animal studies to study various aspects of breast cancer biology.
Video - The Breast Biologues: A biology dialogue about breast cancer and the environment. An award-winning video and comic book explain how the normal breast develops and how exposures to potential cancer-causing chemicals during specific points during development might influence future breast cancer risk.
Comic Book free PDF -The Breast Biolgues companion book to the video.
November 2011 Annual Meeting
Conference Purpose
The Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP) is conducting epidemiologic and biologic studies investigating the influence of Extended Environmental Exposures on breast cancer risk throughout the lifespan. Targeted for study are multiple “windows of susceptibility” that may represent periods of particular vulnerability to specific chemical, dietary, or psychosocial stresses. These windows include pubertal maturation, pregnancy - for both the mother and daughter - and menopause. This scientific meeting seeks to build on the growing interaction between biologic and epidemiologic lines of research inquiry. The latest scientific findings and plans of the BCERP will be presented. Community participation and advocacy concerns will continue to be integrated into the program. Content will include the basic biology of breast development; environmental exposures that influence pubertal maturation, breast development and/or adult breast cancer; and public health communication of the risks associated with these exposures.