Mayo Clinic Cancer Center continues cutting edge research

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

On Oct. 18 The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) awarded Mayo Clinic's Dr. Edith Perez a one-year grant of $250,000 to continue her ongoing breast cancer research program. This is the sixth year that Perez has received funding from the BCRF. The grant comes on the heels of an announcement of a breakthrough treatment for breast cancer, the results of seven years of research led by Perez.

"When we started this study so long ago, I knew the results would be positive," says Perez, "But these far exceeded my expectations." In a joint paper published Oct. 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine, along with co-author Dr. Edward Romond of the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP), Perez showed trastuzumab (Herceptin®) therapy to be highly superior to standard treatment, reducing recurrence of cancer by half, as well as improving overall survival.

Perez is grateful to the BCRF for its continued support. "I am gratified that we were able to change the course of breast cancer for some women through this latest research," she says, "And I hope we can continue to expand on that through work supported by this grant as we look at ways to individualize treatment and work towards a cure."

Perez was a panel speaker and honoree at The Breast Cancer Research Foundation's Tenth Annual Luncheon and Symposium in New York City on Oct. 18. She holds several roles within the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, the only multicenter clinic in the nation to receive the National Cancer Institute's highest designation as a comprehensive cancer center for its entire program. At Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, she is director of the Clinical Cancer Research Study Unit and director of the Breast Cancer Program. She also chairs the Breast Committee of the North Central Cancer Treatment Group, one of the National Cancer Institute's Clinical Trials Cooperative Groups.

The Breast Cancer Research Foundation was founded in 1993 by Evelyn H. Lauder as an independent, not-for-profit 501(c) (3) organization dedicated to funding innovative clinical and genetic research. The foundation supports scientists at leading medical centers worldwide whose research is focused on achieving prevention and a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime. Over $22 million was awarded this year to 110 researchers from across the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Israel and Europe.

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