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Investigating Whether Hispanic Women Have a Biologically Distinct Type of Breast Cancer is the Focus of Yale University Study, Funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure®

The $270,000 training grant is part of Komen for the Cure's $66 million investment in new research, patient support and scientific conferences in 2011. Komen has spent more than $685 million for breast cancer research in its 29 years, making it the largest non-profit funder of breast cancer research outside of the federal government.

"Our research investments are geared to bringing results to the table - and soon - for the most difficult questions in breast cancer," said Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The Yale research is led by Nita Maihle, Ph.D., who will look for biomarkers that could detect cancer in Hispanic women months before conventional imaging can today.

"This grant may lead to a better understanding of issues unique to Hispanic women as we attempt to better understand and address breast cancer's impacts across diverse groups," said Komen President Elizabeth Thompson. "This ties squarely to our mission to fund cutting-edge breast cancer research along the entire cancer continuum - from prevention to early diagnostics, disparities in outcomes, more effective treatments, and answers for aggressive and metastatic disease."

The national research grants announced today augment community health program funding totaling $93 million last year to deliver screening, education and treatment support through more than 1,900 community partnerships nationwide. Komen's Connecticut Affiliate provided more than $1 million in community grant funding in Connecticut last year, with a focus on serving low-income and uninsured women.

"The projects we're investing in today are critical to the momentum we've built during the last 30 years in our quest to understand, and ultimately solve, the many questions surrounding breast cancer," said Eric Winer, M.D., Komen's chief scientific advisor, chief of the Division of Women's Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard University.

*All grants and awards are contingent upon receipt of a fully executed agreement.

About Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which is now the world's largest breast cancer organization and the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer with more than $1.9 billion invested to date. For more information about Susan G. Komen for the Cure, breast health or breast cancer, visit komen.org or call 1-877 GO KOMEN.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure®
Andrea Rader, 972-855-4320
arader@komen.org