Breast cancer stamp funds new NCI program.

F or the last 9 years, the U.S. Postal Service's breast cancer stamp has come to the rescue of breast cancer researchers in need of funding. Now a new program introduced by the National Cancer Institute narrows the focus of the research funded by the stamp but asks bigger questions. The proceeds from the stamp are now funneled into the breast cancer premalig-nancy program, which funds research on premalignant lesions, cancer prevention techniques, and methods for detecting breast cancer or precancers earlier. Since Congress fi rst enacted the stamp program in 1997, NCI has received more than $35 million from stamp sales, which funded more than 50 grants and one clinical trial. These grants covered the breadth of breast cancer research, from high-risk investigations to more well-established research, but the program lacked cohesion , according to NCI Director John Niederhuber, M.D. " I didn't really feel at the time that we were using this resource optimally. It seemed that we should have a goal of what we'd like to accomplish, " he said. In the fall of 2005, Niederhuber and NCI's Executive Committee proposed that the program be revamped to focus on one theme, and the premalignancy program was born. The program's steering committee, which consists of NCI investigators who were selected for their interest in precancer research, chose six projects around the theme of premalignancy — projects that would require interdisciplin-ary, multi-institutional collaboration. The aim of the program was to pool the NCI's resources — both dollars and brainpower — to explore an area of research that the cancer com munity considered underre-searched and underfunded. The program intends to fund projects both inside and outside NCI. " The question of why some premalig-nant lesions remain benign while others you really don't know what you're looking for … this type of science doesn't usually peer review very well. " The six projects, which are all in the early stages or have yet to begin, ask intentionally broad questions in the hope of seeding new areas of research and generating testable hypotheses that will be easier to fund in the future. Marks is currently recruiting research teams for a project to identify the differences among premalignant lesions. While she and her colleagues are still waiting for grant applications from researchers, they hope that this research will ultimately lead to new diagnostic tests, therapies, and imaging techniques. " We want to catalog …