Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) will test whether a set of blood-based biomarkers can assist mammography in the early detection of breast cancer with a $180,000 grant announced today from Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.

The grant will fund research into whether specific biomarkers, or minute substances in the blood, can effectively distinguish breast cancer patients from their healthy counterparts and whether an inexpensive, less invasive screening strategy can be developed based on this approach.

“Breast cancer progression is marked by increased levels of a DNA modification, known as DNA methylation, at certain positions in the human genome, and this increase can be detected in the blood from these patients,” said investigator Simeen Malik, Ph.D., post-doctoral research associate at the USC Epigenome Center. “The research will help us detect these differences in the blood, an approach that may be more effective than current image-based screening techniques like mammography since it is based on the underlying biology of the tumor.”

These diagnostic tests could potentially be administered more frequently than mammography, which may result in earlier detection of the breast tumor by 6-12 months, Malik said.

Malik and Peter W. Laird, Ph.D., director of the USC Epigenome Center, will lead the research in collaboration with investigators at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and City of Hope National Medical Center.

The Komen for the Cure grant is part of $2.8 million in research money Komen is investing in California medical institutions this year alone. These funds are part of a $59 million portfolio of research grants that Komen is funding in 2010 to find the cures for breast cancer and to end the disease.

“We can’t say it often enough: early detection saves lives and too few women are getting the screenings they should be getting today. This is a global issue, one that Susan G. Komen for the Cure is putting considerable energy into solving by funding research that may lead to more portable, accessible and more accurate breast cancer screening on a global scale,” said Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Komen by the Numbers in California:

• Since 1994, Komen has awarded more than $47 million in research in California.

• Komen also has funded $450 million in research globally, starting with Komen’s first grant in 1982 for $28,000. In the past four years alone, Komen has provided $300 million to research programs.

• Additionally, the seven Komen Affiliates that serve California invested $10 million in their local communities last year for early detection and treatment of breast cancer, breast health education and outreach programs

• Nationwide, Komen Affiliates invested a total of $130 million in their local communities. During the past 28 years, Komen has invested more than $900 million to community education and support programs worldwide.

Below are the local institutions, the researchers and the projects Komen is funding this year, pending agreements:

University of Southern California
• Peter Laird, $180,000, Multiplexed DNA methylation biomarkers as a diagnostic tool for the early detection of breast cancer.

University of California at Irvine
• Bruce Tromberg, $180,000, Predicting pathological response within the first week of neoadjuvant chemotherapy using functional parameters measured with diffuse optical imaging.
• Gultekin Gulsen, $180,000-A Combined MRI-Dynamic Contrast Enhanced Fluorescence Tomography System for Breast Cancer Imaging

University of California at San Diego
• John Pierce, $180,000, $599,935 - Mechanisms for higher recurrence risk in breast cancer survivors
• Michael Rosenfeld, $180,000 - A Strategy for Identification of Tumor Translocations in Breast Cancer

Stanford University, School of Medicine
• Michael Clarke, $180,000-Functional Analysis of the DLK1-GTL2 Imprinted Region in Breast Stem Cell Differentiation and Tumorigenesis

University of California at San Francisco
• Andrei Goga, $600,000-Therapy of Receptor Triple-Negative Breast Cancers By Targeting the MYC Oncogene

Buck Institute for Age Research
• Christopher Benz, $600,000 - Decoding Estrogen Receptor Posttranslational Modifications to Predict Risk and Treatment

About the Keck School of Medicine of USC
The Keck School of Medicine of USC trains tomorrow’s leaders in patient care and biomedical research and provides advanced health care to the people of Southern California. Increasingly, the Keck School of Medicine of USC is expanding its biomedical research enterprise and, in so doing, raising its profile as a premier medical school. Research programs in genetics, cancer, neurogenetics, transplantation medicine, and other key areas —have attracted national recognition. The School’s dual commitments to collaborative interdisciplinary research and rapidly translating scientific findings from the lab bench to the patient’s bedside have proved pivotal in its continuing success in research.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists fighting to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures. Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure®, we have invested more than $1.5 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world. For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit http://www.komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN

Source:  University of Southern California