Although metastatic breast cancer claims the lives of forty thousand Americans annually, only 7.1 percent of breast cancer research funding since 2000 has focused on the disease, a report from the MBC Alliance, a coalition of twenty-nine cancer organizations led by the Avon Foundation for Women, finds.

The report, Changing the Landscape for People Living with Metastatic Breast Cancer (132 pages, PDF), found that even though between 20 percent and 30 percent of those diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer later develop the recurrent metastatic form of the disease, awareness of MBC remains low and only $1 billion of the $15 billion in breast cancer research grants awarded since 2000 have focused on the disease. What's more, an analysis of a hundred and sixty-nine clinical trials involving "targeted" therapies for MBC points to the need to lower barriers to patient participation in trials and to design trials to address MBC-specific issues.

The report argues that the field needs better epidemiological data about the number of MBC patients, how long they live, how well they respond to treatments, and which patients experience a recurrence after early-stage diagnosis; that more needs to be done to meet the emotional, physical, and psychosocial needs of patients and their families, especially with respect to minorities and the poor; and that patient education and support services can and should be improved, expanded, and better tracked.

"Changing the Landscape is the most comprehensive analysis on MBC research, information, and services of its kind, and the results highlight that we need to do better for those living with MBC," said Avon Foundation executive director Marc Hurlbert. "We're hopeful this report provides a roadmap for how members of our MBC Alliance and other organizations can band together to better serve people living with MBC and identify ways to accelerate research to develop new treatments."