Baylor RPCV Breast Cancer Study Abandoned?

Jul 19 2015

For the last few years, a research team at Baylor University has been studying the possible link between the use of chloroquine (Aralen) and a reduced risk of breast cancer. RPCV women have been the targeted demographic.

Now, this phase of the study is ending, the use of the questionnaire is discontinued, and the methodology is being revised.

The following is a review of the project.

On Thursday, May 8th 2014, I posted the following on http://old.peacecorpsworldwide.org/pc-public-records/page/6/ I have edited the post. This post does include a link describing the unusual sampling method that the study attempted to use.

Baylor University has received a to study the potential of chloroquine to reduce the risk of breast cancer. The study is funded by a grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Projects and administered by the U.S. Department of Defense. (Corrected: July 21, 2015) Chloroquine was taken to guard against malaria. Aralen is the name I knew for the the drug. This study group at Baylor has partnered with the National Peace Corps Association to locate women who served in the Peace Corps between 1961 and 1990. This is not an official study of the United States Peace Corps. Here are the important links to learn more about the study.”

This link also explains the unusual funding of the project. It was evidently approved by the Congressional Research Office and funded by a grant from the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Projects and administered by the U.S. Department of Defense. ( Funding source corrected: July 21, 2015)The Award Amount was $736,866.68. Baylor’s performance start date was May 1, 2012 and the end date is April 30, 2015. Here are the links to the NPCA articles:

http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/cancerstudy/

http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/cancerstudy/congressionally-directed-medical-research-programs/

On June 1, 2015, in response to my many and unaswered queries about the status of this study, I received the following email from a spokesman for the study,

RPCV study

From	McArthur, Kara K karam@bcm.eduhide details
To	joanneroll joanneroll@aol.com
Cc	Dacso, Clifford C cdacso@bcm.edu

Dear Ms Roll,

Thank you to you and the entire Peace Corps community for your support of the study, A TRANSLATIONAL APPROACH TO VALIDATE IN-VIVO ANTI-TUMOR EFFECTS OF CHLOROQUINE ON BREAST CANCER RISK. Based on our interim analysis, we have decided to revise our methodology. Therefore, we are ending this phase of the study. Although we are not continuing this survey, we have learned a great deal that we will incorporate into future research, which we will continue to share with the RPCV community. We look forward to communicating our results to you as soon as our analysis is complete.

Sincerely,

Kara McArthur

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