"This research investigates ways to potentially stop cancer from spreading, and 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," said Komen President Elizabeth Thompson.

These national research grants are in addition to the $1.6 million in community grants distributed locally in 2011 by Komen's Central and South Jersey Affiliate. Seventy-five percent of funds raised by Komen Affiliates stays in the community for screening, treatment, education and support programs; the rest help fund national research programs.

"The research 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.

Source: Princeton University