Breast Cancer Research Underway in Connecticut

Cutting edge breast cancer research is underway in Connecticut, supported by financial grants from the Connecticut Breast Health Initiative (CT BHI), which sponsors the annual RACE IN THE PARK fundraising event. The RACE and related family-friendly activities will take place this year on May 11 in New Britain, amidst progress in Connecticut-based breast cancer research.

The CT BHI mission is to make a significant impact in the quest to find a cure for breast cancer by providing grants to support education and research. One hundred percent of money raised by CT BHI stays in Connecticut, the only program of its kind in the state. More than $3.75 million in grants have been awarded during the past 15 years to advance education programs and research initiatives.

“What’s raised in Connecticut, stays in Connecticut,” explains Joyce Bray, president of the CT BHI Board of Directors. “We are very proud of the tremendous support we continue to receive from sponsors, donors, volunteers, and participants. Those efforts translate into tangible support for cutting-edge research and programmatic initiatives, right here in Connecticut. We are thrilled to assist this important work in our state.”

Among the recent grant recipients are Dr. Ravi Jain, a radiologist at Middlesex Hospital; Dr. Susan H. Tannenbaum, Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of Hematology/Oncology at UConn Health; and Dr. Anees Chagpar, Professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. Their initiatives include research to reduce return visits to the operating room by breast cancer patients, reduce the number of breast biopsies, and identify new paths of treatment and survivorship.

Imaging with mammograms and ultrasounds to detect breast cancer saves lives. However, these modalities also generate many false positives which can lead to biopsy. There are approximately 1.6 million breast biopsies each year in the United States, of which 75 percent are negative for cancer. These 75% of women feel fortunate that they do not have cancer, but are left emotionally, physically, and financially exhausted by the process.

Dr. Ravi Jain, a radiologist at Middlesex Hospital, sought to use a new technology called Molecular Breast Imaging (or MBI), to explore if it could reliably identify the false positives and thus reduce the number of unnecessary breast biopsies. To do so, he needed to conduct a clinical study. The CT BHI grant he was awarded in 2017 provided the funding for such a study. The study team included the radiologists, mammographers, sonographers, MRI staff, nursing staff, and the grant coordinator, all at Middlesex Hospital in Connecticut.

When the results of this small study were tabulated, the "emerging trend was very encouraging". For Jain and the team at Middlesex Hospital, the CT BHI grant made it possible to take the critical first step of testing the concept of using the MBI technology.

“CT BHI made it possible to lay the foundation to carry this research forward,” Jain explains. “We are very encouraged by the results, and greatly appreciate the opportunity to pursue this diagnostic approach."

Dr. Susan H. Tannenbaum, Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at UConn Health, concurs.

“Connecticut Breast Health Initiative (CT BHI) provides valuable support for the basic starting blocks - to examine a question in a pilot study that otherwise wouldn’t be asked, or to help round out aspects of a larger study that can make a difference for patients.” CT BHI grant funds “may lead to novel interventions or different therapies that can help patients and help us better understand how we can make a difference – in treatments, and in survivorship.”

Currently, efforts are directed at medical journal publication of a recently-completed multi-year pilot study led by Tannenbaum and colleagues at UConn Health into fatigue that occurs during radiation treatment which is a significant concern in that patient population. This was an extensive, multi-disciplinary effort at UConn Health including psychiatry, medical oncology, radiation oncology and nursing. Initial results, Tannenbaum explains, could provide the “building blocks” for a larger study that may ultimately lead to more effective interventions to reduce patient fatigue.

Research initiated with the financial support of CT BHI may reveal a methodology that will substantially decrease the likelihood of individuals who undergo a surgical procedure needing to return to the operating room, explains Dr. Anees Chagpar, Professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine, and a CT BHI grant recipient.

“It is ground-breaking work, and there is really no other way to get it funded. And it is absolutely critical to advance state-of-the-art practice in breast cancer management,” said Chagpar, exuding enthusiasm for her work in surgical oncology, and the impact of CT BHI grants in advancing her research. “What we are doing could change the way we do surgery – really revolutionize our surgical technique.”

The multi-institutional study, led by the Yale School of Medicine, was built on the foundation of a single institution study at Yale previously published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine. The larger study, funded in part by CT BHI, included nine cancer centers around the country, to assure that differing populations were involved, which is important in analyzing results that can be extrapolated to a larger population.

Chagpar underscores the importance of Connecticut-based research, and the benefits to patients. The “very solid results” achieved in this latest study are in the midst of being prepared for publication in a medical journal. That will hopefully lead to modifications in practice that will benefit patients, first and foremost, and also cut costs in the health care system by reducing the number of individuals for whom a return to the operating room after surgery becomes necessary.

Her message of appreciation to CT BHI mission, and those who support its mission, is succinct and sincere: “Your funding is absolutely making a difference.”

CT BHI funds research that has not yet qualified for federal grants, specifically in the areas of breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and survivorship. One in eight women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Over 211,000 new breast cancer cases are diagnosed annually in the U.S., including 16,000 men. About 40,000 women die of breast cancer each year, and about 85 percent of the women diagnosed have no family history of breast cancer.