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Grants Analysis

Identification of MBC-Relevant Awards
As of June 1, 2014, the ICRP database contained 18,755 grants that were active between the
years of 2000 and 2013 and had been identified as being related to breast cancer studies; the
HRA gHRAsp database contained 2045 grants that were active between the years of 2006 and
2013 and were related to breast cancer (see Figure 4). Using combinations of keywords (e.g.,
“metastasis, metastatic, advanced”) that would select for grants potentially relevant to MBC,
the ICRP database yielded 2237 records and the HRA database yielded 73 records. We then
manually reviewed a random sample of these grants to validate our search and data extraction
strategy. Only 29 records were identified as being false positives—meaning that manual review
of the record determined that it was irrelevant to MBC (around 1%). Thus, the keyword search
strategy was effective in identifying relevant grants from both databases. The search yielded an
MBC Grants dataset of 2281 grants totaling $1.07 billion. Examples of how grants were further
categorized into the metastasis stage are given in Appendix 4.

Figure 4: MBC Grants Dataset

ICRP database: 18,755 awards HRA gHRAsp database: 2045 awards
($14.7B) focused on breast cancer. ($0.7B) focused on breast cancer.
Calendar years 2000–2013 Calendar years 2006–2013

18,775 keyword search 2045
awards awards
$14.7B $0.7B 29
false
positives

2310 manual validation 2281
awards awards
$1.07B
2310 awards potentially
relevant to MBC with
>50% of project relevant
to breast cancer

Grants categorized into:
Molecular target/pathway
Metastasis stage
Model system/study type
Basic/translational/clinical/cancer control
Intervention (therapy, diagnostic, etc.)