April 6, 2007, ST. LOUIS – The St. Louis Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure awarded the Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine almost $500,000 for eight breast cancer programs dedicated to education, screening, treatment and support with an additional grant researching the role of tumor cells in breast cancer.

Overall, approximately $2 million was given to 24 St. Louis-area programs at Komen''s 9th annual Grants Awards Reception April 5.

The programs are:

• Fighting Breast Cancer Where it Lives: Reaching Underserved Women through Community Alliances
  This program provides breast screening to 1,750 underserved, uninsured and low income women.
• The Daylight Project: Bringing Education, Healing and Hope to Refugee and Immigrant Women
  A multidisciplinary effort that promotes linguistically and culturally appropriate dialogue about breast health and breast cancer that leads to healthy choices by women in refugee and immigrant communities.
• The Navigator Project
  This program addresses the needs of women from medically underserved areas in St. Louis who are undergoing diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer through direct contact, coordination of services and referral to community and social service resources.
• The St. Louis Witness Project
  Witness "Role Models" share their stories in churches and community settings, linking low income and uninsured women to breast cancer screening and follow-up with special assistance.
• H.U.G.S. (Help Us Give Support)
  This grant provides support to children or grandchildren of women diagnosed with breast cancer.
• The Young Women''s Breast Cancer Program
  Partners with young survivors to implement effective strategies to meet the age relevant needs of young women with breast cancer.
• The Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities (PECaD)
  The Siteman program will receive funding to evaluate breast cancer diagnosis delays in certain women and also to create a Breast Health Disparities Task Force.

In addition to those outreach programs, Washington University School of Medicine was awarded funding for a Cell Search System. It''s a semi-automated, fluorescence-based microscopy system capable of accurately measuring circulating tumor cells in breast cancer patients at extremely low frequencies.

"This technology is an essential component of several existing and planned breast cancer clinical trials at Siteman Cancer Center," says William Gillanders, MD, breast surgeon at Siteman and the principal investigator and project director for circulating tumor cells in breast cancer.