First-Ever Collaborative Summit on Breast Cancer Research Targets New Partnerships and Collaborative...( Groundbreaking Meeting Brings Tog...),Health

Groundbreaking Meeting Brings Together Cancer Funding Organizations, Advocates, Government Agencies, and Scientists from Academic Institutions

and the Pharmaceutical Industry

NEW YORK, Nov. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Leadership and senior staff of twenty- seven breast cancer funding organizations and advocacy groups met on November 1-2 along with experts from government agencies, scientists from academic institutions and researchers from the pharmaceutical industry at the unprecedented Collaborative Summit on Breast Cancer Research. This first meeting of its kind in the US took place in Leesburg, VA, outside Washington, DC, and included some 100 invited participants. Special host for the event was Paula Zahn.

The Collaborative Summit was facilitated by the Avon Foundation and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and co-funded by the Avon Foundation and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, who worked with co-organizers to create an event to bring together those who raise and award funds with those who are on the edge of new discoveries, with the goal of discussing possible new collaborations and cooperation to end the burden of breast cancer. Key topics addressed by the funders, advocates, researchers, regulators, industry representatives, and social scientists included the current federal government budget crisis in research funding and a definition of new research funding paradigms to optimize opportunities and reduce barriers and waste, all towards the goal of eradicating breast cancer.

Several initial action items were developed by consensus, including:

* A "National Breast Cancer Planning Committee" will be formed by key

funding agencies, including the Avon Foundation, The Breast Cancer

Research Foundation, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and other key

stakeholders. The Committee will meet periodically to review the

breast cancer landscape and national agenda in breast
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