DoD Awards $10+ Mil Grant to V. Craig Jordan for Research on New Breast Ca Treatment

Fox Chase Cancer Center's V. Craig Jordan, OBE, PHD, DSC, has received a $10.7 million grant from the Department of Defense (DoD) Breast Cancer Research Program for a Breast Cancer Center of Excellence focused on developing a new treatment model for breast cancer to reverse the eventual development of resistance to antiestrogen therapy. The 5-year multidisciplinary project, intended to encompass both laboratory research and clinical trials, involves scientists and physicians at Fox Chase and three other institutions, representing four task teams.

Project Goals

"The DoD Breast Cancer Research Program is pleased to support this innovative project by Dr. Jordan, his collaborators and Fox Chase Cancer Center to address a critical issue in breast cancer—the identification of new therapeutic drugs to treat women with breast cancer," said Col. Janet R. Harris, MDN, PHD, director of the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs administering the DoD Breast Cancer Research Program. "Through this project, new treatments will be brought from the laboratory to stage I and II clinical trials, facilitating the process for making new breast cancer therapeutic drugs available sooner."

This is Fox Chase's second Center of Excellence grant received in 5 years. In 2001, the Department of Defense awarded a $6 million dollar grant for the development of the nation's first Behavioral Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Research.

"In the past 25 years, the estrogen receptor has proven to be an important target for the treatment of breast cancer," Jordan explained. "However, there is a need for a new strategy to reverse the eventual development of antihormonal drug resistance, to ensure that effective agents can ultimately be used indefinitely."