The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation is on a mission: to eradicate breast cancer and improve the quality of women's health through innovative research, education and advocacy.  Through our research, we are working towards an unprecedented understanding of  where breast cancer begins—in the breast ducts—and we now have the tools to get there. The intraductal research holds the potential to expand our knowledge in way that will truly allow us to end breast cancer. That is why it is the focus of our research and that of the researchers we fund.

The intraductal approach allows us to examine and understand the conditions inside the breast duct that support or block the development of cancer. Early studies have suggested that estrogen levels in the duct fluid are significantly higher than they are in the blood. The breast appears to have the ability to make its own estrogen. Could this be what differentiates high-risk women from those at low risk? We don't yet know. How does the normal, non-breastfeeding breast work? What is absorbed and concentrated into the breast ducts? Why do the cells that line the milk ducts become cancerous in some women? We don't yet know. Are the elusive carcinogens that are responsible for breast cancer in the ductal fluid bathing the very cells at risk? We don't yet know. But by utilizing the intraductal approach, we have the ability to find out.
Studying this fluid may finally lead to the development of a blood or fluid test that would go beyond identifying cancers that are already present to identifying cells that are "thinking" about becoming cancer some day. This would be true breast cancer prevention—and it would mark the beginning of the end of this disease.
 

Information sessions about our ongoing and upcoming research projects take place every Wednesday evening at the Foundation office. If you live in Southern California, this is an excellent opportunity for you to learn about what it's like to volunteer for one of our studies as well as which studies you would qualify for. These informal meetings will be held at 6pm at the Foundation offices (875 Via de la Paz Suite C, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272). If you or a friend is interested, please call us to RSVP at (310) 230-1712 ext. 32.  Help us eradicate breast cancer!