Exploring Disparities,Environmental Risk Factors in Teachers
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Introduction: The fact that breast cancer is more common in urban and industrial areas than in rural areas has fueled speculation that exposures to environmental pollutants may play a causal role in the development of breast cancer. While a number of studies have attempted to study such links, efforts have generally been hindered by a variety of methodologic limitations of which exposure assessment has been paramount. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hypothesis/Central Question: This project responds to CBCRP’s request for the development of a detailed proposal designed to evaluate the relationship between targeted environmental exposures and breast cancer by capitalizing on and enhancing pre-existing data resources available for the California Teachers Study (CTS) cohort. Initiated in 1995 specifically to study breast cancer, the CTS offers a wealth of information on breast cancer risk factors and outcomes among nearly 134,000 women living throughout California. Residential information on cohort members have been geocoded (i.e., assigned to a latitude/longitude), integrated into an existing geographic information system (GIS), and used in a number of preliminary investigations of environmental risk factors for breast cancer. The objective of this project is to develop a fully-detailed research proposal for expansion of the existing CTS resources to optimally evaluate targeted environmental exposures of concern. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Methodology: The process for developing a full research proposal will involve a comprehensive evaluation of existing CTS resources as well as an evaluation of the feasibility of enhancing those resources by creating a biospecimen bank, collecting additional environmental exposure information, and expanding the cohort to enrich its racial, ethnic and age diversity. Tasks will include: identifying environmental risk factors of greatest concern for targeted study; evaluating existing statewide data resources useful for characterizing environmental exposures including aspects of the social, built, and chemical environments; developing a plan for using the existing GIS to integrate additional georeferenced data into the CTS; developing methods to expand current field collection of biospecimens in the CTS to include any additional biologic media necessary and/or to sample women so as to enhance the racial, ethnic, age, or geographic diversity of the study sample; identifying laboratories with appropriate expertise in measuring biologic levels of targeted compounds of interest; identifying genetic characteristics most relevant to environmental exposures of interest and presenting a plan for conducting any additional genetic assays not already underway; developing methods for the collection of additional survey data for targeted environmental exposures; developing a sampling and analysis plan that maximizes our statistical power to examine exposure profiles and risk relationships in specific racial, ethnic, or age groups of interest; describing plans to involve breast cancer and other community advocates in the design, implementation, and dissemination of results from the study; developing a budget and timeline for completing all proposed work. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Innovation: This projects aims to identify optimal approaches for utilizing and enhancing the wealth of pre-existing information available from one of the largest on-going studies of breast cancer for the specific purpose of studying environmental exposures. As such, it offers an unprecedented opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan to study environmental factors that could lead to major leaps in our understanding of how environmental exposures impact breast cancer risks and outcomes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Advocacy Involvement: Ongoing oversight for the CTS is provided by an External Advisory Committee (EAC) consisting of representation from scientists, clinicians, teachers groups and breast cancer advocacy groups. The EAC provides guidance on the overall direction and focus of the study, and for community outreach and information dissemination. Additional input from breast cancer advocacy organizations on the direction and conduct of the current proposal will be provided.