Call for Topics

Are you an individual, or part of a group, that is working toward having a real world impact on breast cancer? Do you know of some “gap areas,” where there just is not enough known about breast cancer prevention, detection, treatment, or supporting women with or at risk for breast cancer? Would having answers in these gap areas help you to advance your cause?

CBCRP is seeking ideas for policy research topics to be addressed through our Policy Initiative. Your submission could become the topic of a research project carried out by one of our Policy Initiative research teams.

Who can submit a topic? Anyone! 

Take the survey

What research would be helpful to you? What topics are in need of some research to help move them along and create real-world change?

To give you an idea of what we mean by topics, here are just a few examples of questions that folks may have:

• Now that California law requires mammography reports to notify women who have dense breasts, what does my organization tell women with dense breasts about their screening options based on existing evidence? Which women might be recommended for additional screening and which methodologies might be employed?
• My organization is concerned that breast cancer patients who are covered by MediCal are not able to access critical breast cancer treatment because the low provider reimbursement rates result in many providers refusing to serve patients covered only by MediCal. Can you help us collect data on the extent of the problem and potential solutions?
• I work in a job where we use a lot of chemicals day-in and day-out. Some of us have started to wonder how we can keep these chemicals from affecting our health. Are there ways that workers can protect themselves from these chemicals, while still getting the job done? We’d like to suggest these strategies to our employer.
• My group wants to advocate adding a breast cancer related service or treatment to MediCal coverage. We need estimates of how many women would need the service or treatment, how much it costs, and how many lives would be improved or saved by covering it under MediCal?
• How might removing “carcinoma” from the term DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma in situ) change women’s treatment choices, including opting for watchful waiting? What are effective, evidence-based educational and decision tools for DCIS that can help reduce overtreatment and associated harms for women?
• Schools in our district use lots of different types of plastics to store, prepare, and serve food for our kids who don’t bring their own lunch to school. Our group of concerned parents has heard about some chemicals of concern in plastics. Also, what we’re learning about the health impacts of what kids are exposed to at different ages has us wanting a change. We’d like to recommend other ways of storing, preparing and serving food but we need to know what would be the cost to the school to do so?
• We want to pass a law that any products containing endocrine disrupters must have a warning label. Some people say that would cost too much and would end up raising the cost of products that we buy. What would be the cost to manufacturers? What impact would this have on sales? What impact might the cost of labeling have on product prices?

For additional examples, here are the topics that have been studied by Policy Initiative research projects to date:

• What are the significant barriers or challenges to access to breast cancer oncology care in California if you are uninsured, underinsured, on public or private health insurance?
• What enhancements can strengthen and assist in the implementation of the California’s Green Chemistry Initiative?
• What are the barriers to care for women with metastatic breast cancer, and what are the policy interventions that could reduce those barriers?
• Are there policy interventions that could increase awareness, among the public and medical community, of alcohol as a risk factor for breast cancer and translate that increased awareness, particularly among adolescent girls and young women, into behavioral change and risk reduction?

Your question might be something like these examples, or it could be in a completely different area related to breast cancer. All are welcome.

In some cases, there might already be a lot of information available; please help us by gathering as much of that information as you can and providing us with a summary of that background.

In the brief online survey, we’ll ask you about:

• Topic: What is the problem you are trying to solve?
• Information Needed: Tell us your exact question. The more detailed and specific the better.
• Background: What research has already been done on this topic?
• Rationale: How will having an answer to this question help advance the cause you are working on?
• Use of Information: Once you have the answer to this question, how will you use that information?
• Policy Target: Tell us about the specific public or private policy that the answers to your question could impact.

The survey will take approximately 10-20 minutes topic you wish to nominate. If you hit any barriers when completing the survey, or have any questions about the Policy Initiative, reach out to us at healthpolicy@cabreastcancer.org. We look forward to hearing your ideas!

We hope the answers that come out of these projects will help those working on breast cancer have the information they need in the areas where there just aren’t enough answers.