Researchers at The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University have received a five-year, $13 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for studies aimed at the prevention, early detection and treatment of breast cancer.

Noted breast cancer researcher V. Craig Jordan is principal investigator on the Northwestern research program. Jordan is Diana, Princess of Wales Professor of Cancer Research, director of the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Research Program and professor of molecular pharmacology and biological chemistry at Northwestern University Medical School.

Northwestern was one of only four outstanding institutions chosen by the NCI to receive this special grant, called SPORE (Specialized Program of Research Excellence in breast cancer), to support "innovative, multidisciplinary, translational research that may have an immediate impact on improving cancer care and prevention."

The Northwestern research project consists of six studies that will examine the role of diet and hormones in the prevention and development of breast cancer; investigate the cell and molecular biology of breast cancer; evaluate factors associated with breast cancer risk and prevention; and implement innovative translational therapies for breast cancer.

In addition to being principal investigator on the overall project, Jordan will head one of the six studies, which will focus on drug resistance to antiestrogens.

The researchers on the other five projects are J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Irving S. Cutter Professor and chair of medicine; Ann Thor, M.D., professor of pathology; Robert T. Chatterton, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and of physiology; Monica Morrow, M.D., professor of surgery and director of the of the Lynn Sage Comprehensive Breast Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; and Gerald A. Soff, M.D., associate professor of medicine.

Jordan has guided the clinical development of tamoxifen and raloxifene for more than 25 years. He was the first scientist to note that tamoxifen, an antiestrogen drug originally developed as a contraceptive, prevented the growth of mammary tumors in rodents. In the 1970s, he also showed in the laboratory that long-term tamoxifen treatment was the best strategy for the clinical use of the antiestrogen.

Tamoxifen subsequently was found to increase the survival of breast cancer patients and also to prevent the development of breast cancer in high-risk women; 350,000 women are alive today because of tamoxifen treatment.

Jordan and Morrow, who are married, were recruited to Northwestern in 1993 to develop a comprehensive, University-wide program for the prevention, early detection and treatment of breast cancer. The Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Foundation provides essential financial resources for the program, which enabled the researchers to earn first a Breast Cancer Program Development Grant from the National Institutes of Health in 1995 and Morrow a $4.2 million breast cancer center grant from the Department of Defense in 1996.

Morrow recently was awarded an additional $2.2 million dollars in research funds from the Avon Products Foundation Breast Cancer Research and Care Program to enhance clinical breast cancer services for underserved minority women and to expand basic science and translational research in breast cancer.

The Avon-sponsored research program, which is administered by Morrow and Jordan, comprises patient-oriented studies as well as molecular biological and educational development projects.

As envisioned by Jordan, the studies sponsored by the SPORE grant and those funded by Avon were developed to be complementary and mutually enriching.

"The willingness of the Lynn Sage organization and the Avon Products Foundation to invest in breast cancer research made it possible for our team to be successful in this national competition," Jordan said.

"Our program has developed from nothing to world-class in seven years. Our success is a tribute to all the individuals in the community who are committed to conquering cancer," he said.

The Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University includes nearly 300 physicians and basic scientists who conduct cancer-related research at the University and at the affiliated teaching hospitals of Northwestern University Medical School. The Cancer Center is one of only 35 institutions in the United States to have earned the coveted "comprehensive" designation from the NCI.