Challenging dominant breast cancer research agendas: perspectives on the outcomes of the interagency breast cancer and environment research coordinating committee

• Published in: Environmental health Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 41 - 12
• Main Author: Richter, Lauren
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 06.05.2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Advocacy; Analysis; Biomedical Research - statistics & numerical data; Breast Cancer; Breast Neoplasms; Cancer Prevention; Cancer research; Cancer therapies; Committees; Confidentiality; Disease prevention; Environmental Contributors to Cancer; Environmental factors; Environmental health; Environmental research; Epigenetic inheritance; Epigenetics; Etiology; Federal employees; Female; Funding; Genetics; Grass roots movement; Humans; Interinstitutional Relations; Interviews; Laws; Mass Media - statistics & numerical data; Media coverage; Medical research; NGOs; Nongovernmental organizations; Prevention; Priorities; Public health; Research funding; Research methodology; Researchers; Risk factors; Science; Social activism; Social Movements; Social sciences; Stakeholders; United States; United States; New York; United States > US; Cancer Prevention; Social Movements; Breast Cancer; Environmental Contributors to Cancer
• ISSN: 1476-069X; 1476-069X
• DOI: 10.1186/s12940-019-0479-1

As breast cancer rates increase globally, there is growing scientific consensus that greater understanding of the causes of breast cancer is needed to better prevent its occurrence. Genetics accounts for a small percentage of cases, thus environmental factors and epigenetics are increasingly suspect in breast cancer etiology. Within the breast cancer and environmental breast cancer social movements, there are longstanding calls for research and policy aimed toward the prevention of breast cancer. To better understand the opportunities and barriers to addressing environmental contributors to breast cancer, this article investigates both outcomes and perceptions of stakeholders involved in the Interagency Breast Cancer and Environment Research Coordinating Committee (IBCERCC). The IBCERCC was mandated by the 2008 U.S. Breast Cancer and Environmental Research Act, a law representing years of advocate and researcher efforts to produce national strategies and federal funding for breast cancer prevention research. To understand the meaning and impact of the IBCERCC advisory committee and final report, Prioritizing Prevention, I draw on fifteen confidential semi-structured interviews with members of the twenty-five person IBCERCC, in addition to six confidential semi-structured interviews with key breast cancer funders, advocates, and researchers affiliated with national reports on environmental contributors to cancer. I examine media coverage, congressional hearing transcripts, and official responses to the release of the IBCERCC report by governmental and non-governmental organizations. Interviews and publicly available documents reveal a set of direct and indirect outcomes of the 2013 IBCERCC report. Interviewees in government positions perceived the 2014 renewal of the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program to result from IBCERCC efforts, notable in the context of declining U.S. federal research funding. Interviews also revealed a suite of potential barriers to the implementation of report recommendations including: distinct interpretations of the federal mandate, disparate assessments of scientific evidence, government funding crises, and lack of specificity around responsibility for implementation of report findings. This article examines efforts to shift institutional research and funding priorities in cancer research towards prevention. Social science research can support efforts to shift institutional priorities by identifying broader social contexts and underlying values typically unnamed in scientific discourse.