We think folks found oppor-tunities by hearing from others and seeing other projects demonstrated. These relationships are always difficult because of funding, but any partnering begins with talking. It was a very successful conference. Likewise, we wanted to pull together information on what facilitates partnerships. By the end we got a clear idea, and we will disseminate this information so that participants may learn how to be successful at partnering and not hit the same barriers.
Progress is incremental.
Breast cancer, as other cancers, is proving itself to be a multifactorial disease, and there are no easy solutions. We have a lot of work to do to identify and clarify the role of risk factors, such as in the area of environment. We don't even know what many of the risk factors are, and which will be preventable. The National Action Plan on Breast Cancer is a national-level project addressing some possible risk factors, such as radiation. At the Partnering to Improve Outcomes conference, one of the partnerships described was a conference cosponsored by the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, the National Cancer Institute, the Komen Foundation and the American Cancer Society.