Diet, chronic inflammation, and aggressive breast cancer
Official title: A multi-omics approach to evaluate the role of chronic inflammation in breast cancer development
Funded at Brigham and Women's Hospital · NIH-11457143 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at whether long-term inflammation linked to diet is connected to higher risk of aggressive breast cancers in women using blood samples and molecular data.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Brigham and Women's Hospital NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Boston, United States) |
| Project start | February 1, 2024 |
| Project end | January 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $248,810 |
| NIH project number | 4R00CA286891-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11457143 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are women represented in long-term cohorts (like the Nurses' Health Study) who have completed dietary questionnaires and have stored blood samples, or women willing to join similar observational cohorts.
✕Less likely to help
People without linked dietary data or stored blood samples, men, or those seeking immediate treatment options for existing breast cancer are unlikely to benefit directly from this research.
What this research studies
If you are part of large cohorts like the Nurses' Health Study, your past diet questionnaires and stored blood samples would help researchers link what people eat and their lifestyle to molecular signs of chronic inflammation. The team will combine multiple 'omics' layers (for example, proteins, metabolites, and other molecular markers) with traditional biomarkers and advanced statistical methods. By integrating repeated dietary measures with prediagnostic plasma specimens, they aim to find molecular patterns tied to more aggressive, estrogen-receptor–negative breast cancers. The work focuses on revealing pathways that could guide precision nutrition and targeted prevention strategies.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could identify dietary patterns and molecular markers that help prevent or detect aggressive breast cancers earlier and allow more personalized prevention advice.
How similar studies have gone: Previous observational studies have linked pro-inflammatory diets to higher breast cancer risk, especially ER-negative tumors, but applying integrated multi-omics to this question is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
-
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Romanos-Nanclares, Andrea — Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Study coordinator: Romanos-Nanclares, Andrea
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.