UCSF and Washington University in St. Louis will receive the largest awards of $6.5 million each.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure® will support 80 cancer research programs with $55 million this year. The money will go to 56 institutions across the U.S., and over $1.2 million of the research commitment will be invested in projects outside the U.S.

Grant amounts range from $120,000 to $600,000 plus two awards of $6.5 million each. These larger grants are going to:

  • University of California, San Francisco—to test a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). This research is aimed at finding ways to allow chemotherapy to work more effectively against TNBC and other aggressive forms of breast cancer.
  • Washington University in St. Louis—to develop a personalized breast cancer vaccine to prevent recurrence. The work will use new technologies to identify unique tumor antigens.

Komen says that 40% of the funding will be invested in projects that seek to understand the underlying origins of breast cancer and why it has the capacity to spread throughout the body. Nearly 22% will go toward early detection, and about 20% will be invested in new treatments.

Of the $55 million, Komen is providing more than $6 million for fellowship training for bright young scientists, while nearly $12 million will be directed to projects seeking to overcome disparities in breast cancer outcomes among different population groups.

In addition, Komen has allocated nearly $3 million toward 33 grants to support patient support conferences and programs focusing on young women, women with metastatic disease, hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, and cancer-related legal issues, as well as important scientific conferences both in the U.S. and globally. This brings the total grants package announced today to $58 million.

“From understanding and treating aggressive diseases like inflammatory breast cancer to overcoming disparities in care and outcomes, we continue to fund research that tackles the toughest issues in breast cancer,” says Komen president Elizabeth Thompson.

Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, founder and CEO of Komen for the Cure, adds, “Our goal at Komen is to fund research with the greatest potential to make a difference and save lives in the shortest period of time. That means putting our dollars toward cutting-edge research that is high-risk, with potentially huge rewards.”

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