The Sister Study is a nationwide effort, conducted by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to learn how the environment and genes may affect the chances of getting

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

. Over 10 years, the study followed 50,000 sisters of women who have had breast cancer, in hopes of finding the environmental and genetic causes of the disease. Sister Study participants were women ages 35 to 74. Women were eligible to participate if their sister (living or deceased), related to them by blood, had breast cancer; they had never had breast cancer themselves, and they lived in the United States or Puerto Rico. The Sister Study was available in English and Spanish. Recruitment for the study began in 2004 and closed in 2009. The principal investigators for the study are

Dale Sandler Dale Pearlman Sandler is an American epidemiologist specialized in prospective cohort studies designed to study the impact of environmental exposures on population health. She is chief of the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Envi ...

and

Clarice Weinberg Clarice Ring Weinberg is an American biostatistician and epidemiologist who works for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences as principal investigator in the Biostatistics and Computational Biology Branch. Her research concerns e ...

and the study was overseen by Marian Johnson-Thompson. Organizations in partnership with the Sister Study included the

American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. Established in 1913, the society is organized into six geographical regions of both medical and lay volunteers operating in more than ...

, the Intercultural Cancer Council, the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health, Sisters Network Inc.,

Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization or Y-ME (previously Breast Cancer Network of Strength), was a Chicago-based national nonprofit organization that provided resources, information, and support to those suffering from breast cancer. Their missi ...

Susan G. Komen for the Cure Susan G. Komen (formerly known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure; originally as The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation; often simply as Komen) is a breast cancer organization in the United States. Komen focuses on patient navigation and advo ...

, and

Breast Cancer Network of Strength Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization or Y-ME (previously Breast Cancer Network of Strength), was a Chicago-based national nonprofit organization that provided resources, information, and support to those suffering from breast cancer Breas ...

References

External links

The Sister Study: Home
Research projects Environmental health organizations Breast cancer organizations {{Womens-health-stub