Cornell’s Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors, a statewide program aimed at making cancer research easily understandable and publicly accessible within the College of Veterinary Medicine, is in the process of closing because New York State has decided to end its funding.

According to Suzanne Snedeker, associate director of translational research of BCERF, the state appropriated funding for BCERF on its budget in April of this year. The state used to release funding for BCERF to the Department of Environmental Conservation, which would then pass it on to BCERF through a contract with the Department of Health. To process the paperwork for the contract, allocation of funding for BCERF in the state budget must first be approved.

Since BCERF needed the contract to obtain funding, the directors became concerned by the end of July when they noticed that progress on the contract had stagnated. Towards the end of September, the directors found out that the state had scrapped its earlier plan to fund BCERF.

“We have been funded by the state for 14 years. This is the first time that funding was not released [by the state],” Snedeker said. “We asked for a written explanation for the reasons that funding was withheld but we never got one.”

BCERF was established in 1996 as a response to breast cancer patients’ strong interest in learning about the connection between breast cancer and environmental risk factors. The program evaluates existing research literature on breast cancer and translates the scientifically dense literature into common language understandable to the ordinary individual. BCERF publishes materials and a monthly newsletter updating people on recent findings about breast cancer. It also publishes a newsletter directed mainly towards firefighters. Besides distributing materials and newsletters, the program also hosts workshops and training for healthcare professionals around the state.

Snedeker said it usually took a long time for the funding to get to BCERF because of the complicated procedure and the vast paperwork involved in obtaining approval for funding on the state budget. In the past, Cornell used to assist BCERF with loans while it waited for funding to arrive.

“Cornell did that with the anticipation that funding would eventually come from the state,” Snedeker said. “This is no longer possible because the time lag has increased over the years and we have become less certain now regarding whether or not we will get funding from the state. This also became difficult when money got tighter, and the University is going through financial difficulties.”

Other than the state, BCERF could turn to no one else for financial support. “It takes a long time to locate funding for the program,” Snedeker said. “We have tried to sustain the program with the money remaining from last year but we don’t have money anymore. We have to end the program.”

BCERF encompasses two initiatives — the Program on the Cancer Risk of Environmental Chemicals in the Home and Workplace and Small Steps Are Easier Together. While the former, headed by Snedeker, relies solely on state funding, the latter, led by Carol Devine, nutritional sciences, receives federal funding from the department of agriculture. Small Steps Are Easier together will thus continue running despite the termination of its counterpart.

While that aspect of the program is financially secure, Devine pointed out that her division will still be affected because of its dependance on the website maintained by Snedeker’s part of BCERF, which will likewise be terminated due to the lack of funding.

“The website serves as an important tool not only for disseminating information on breast cancer,” Devine said, “but also for communicating with people all over the world about breast cancer risks.”

The BCERF website in September 2009 recorded 198,637 total hits to the website and 14,658 PDF files were downloaded. After BCERF reviews, translates and reproduces the current repertoire of research findings into non-scientist-friendly fact sheets, the translational team uploads them on to their website as PDF files, making them available to visitors.

On top of summarizing existing breast cancer research findings, BCERF also puts this information into context and explains the significance of these findings to the general public. Breast cancer groups around the country use BCERF’s information to back their call for policies to minimize breast cancer risks.

“These advocacy groups comprise breast cancer survivors and people whose lives have been touched by breast cancer in some way. When they are affected by the disease directly, they would want to learn about diagnosis and screening and all that,” Devine said. “But once that is over, they would start thinking about what they can do to make breast cancer less likely in their community. Most of these people are very politically active and they would use the information provided by BCERF to promote changes in public policy.”

BCERF also collaborates directly and interactively with advocacy groups. When these groups host public forums, BCERF would recommend experts to talk to the groups and help them select speakers to invite. In turn, advocacy groups would suggest topics that they would like BCERF to work on evaluating and translating.

As BCERF closes, there are not many alternatives that people can turn to for similar services. “There are very few groups devoted to environmental risk factors,” Snedeker said.

“It’s just very, very disappointing to see this resource go away,” Julia Brody, executive director of the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass., said in an interview with The Ithaca Journal on Nov. 24. “They generate some of the best educational materials about environmental risk factors of breast cancer. And the science continues to change, so the information needs to be constantly updated. ... We would like to have the Cornell group by our side going forward.”