The Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine has been awarded a grant by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, Inc. (FAMRI), to further its breast cancer research efforts. The grant of $150,000 is to support and encourage novel, early stage research into breast cancer, a disease associated with exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

 

“Identifying new therapies for the treatment of breast cancer starts in the laboratory,” said Joyce Slingerland, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the grant and Director of the Braman Family Breast Cancer Institute at Sylvester. “This grant that provides seed funding for new breast cancer research projects will open new avenues for research that may have high yield in the future. This support from FAMRI will allow us to make those new discoveries.”

 

The mission of the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute is to sponsor scientific and medical research for the early diagnosis and cure of diseases and medical conditions caused from exposure to tobacco smoke.

 

The FAMRI International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP) Cooperative Effort, a project sponsored by FAMRI funding, chose Sylvester as one of 34 nationwide screening sites for early detection of diseases related to exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, particularly of flight attendants. Non-smoking flight attendants who flew before the smoking ban was implemented are eligible to receive a free scan at one of three locations in the Miami area.