Cancer Prevention Initiative

In 2022, the Cancer Prevention Initiative (CPI) research programs progressed, and CPI continued to grow and develop. The CPI scientific team continued to monitor and support scientific progress on multi-year programs. CPI's research grant recipients have advanced towards greater understanding of preventing inherited cancers. Ongoing projects include Cleveland Clinic, where investigators seek to identify proteins uniquely and highly expressed in breast cancer of BRCA1 mutation carriers. Identification of these unique proteins is an important link for developing preventative vaccines. Also continuing is a project with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to generate a robust cellular assay that would allow for the screening of hundreds of compounds to identify determinants of Loss of Heterozygosity (LoH) of BRCA genes. LoH is a major driver in cancer initiation, and discovery of compounds that cause LoH can be key for prevention discoveries. Other ongoing projects include Harvard's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where they are working to identify cancer risk predictors in the reproductive epithelium in BRCA mutation carriers, and work at the University of Toronto to screen for drugs that can restore normal BRCA1 function to BRCA1 deficient cells. An international collaboration has co-developed a candidate vaccine for the prevention of triple negative breast cancers in patients who have inherited a BRCA1 mutation.

Education and community engagement programs: As we move closer to our goal of eradicating all cancers through preventative medicines, we believe that educating the public and raising awareness about inherited cancer syndromes will inspire more individuals to take proactive, life-saving preventive measures. One of the goals is to enhance the scientific reach of the organization and raise awareness on cancer prevention to a broader audience of patients, advocates and donors. Thus, regular updates on scientific and medical research advances, recent clinical trials, and interviews with experts in cancer prevention are published on web-based platforms. We also conduct an annual scientific symposium with all the researchers we fund and other scientists working on cancer prevention.