The Avon-NCI Progress for Patients Awards Program, completed in 2009, made a significant impact on breast cancer research, accelerating the movement of pre-clinical discoveries to application in patients, and fostering collaborative efforts that optimized resources and efficiencies.

A $33 million partnership between the Avon Foundation, the National Cancer Institute and the Foundation for NIH, the program funded 59 projects that spanned the full spectrum of interventions in the prevention, risk assessment, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, including imaging, pathology, radiation oncology, drug development and biomarker analysis.

The partnership focused on attracting young scientists to breast cancer research and supported studies that included minority and under-served populations. Even though the rate of cancer mortality continues to drop, cancer still remains a leading cause of death, second only to heart disease.