Some of the money from each breast cancer donation helps to cover the expenses of the scientific researcher in the biomedical laboratory. Such a scientist might, for example, be intent on growing and studying breast cancer cells. A scientist who was growing cells would need vessels in which to grow the cells, media for feeding the cells and equipment that allows the transfer of cells from one area of growth to another. The scientist would also need a place to store frozen breast cancer cells, cells saved for use in future research.
Some of the money from a breast cancer donation could finance a set of darkroom supplies. It might also pay for fancy chromatography equipment, equipment that could separate-out the different proteins in the breast cancer cells. Once the separation has been completed, then the scientist would take a picture of the resulting pattern. The pattern would tell the scientist what proteins were in the breast cancer cells. The pattern could influence the scientist to arrange for collection of large numbers of breast cancer cells, or for the collection of media in which those cells have been growing.
The scientist would put the picture with its tell-tale pattern in a journal article about his or her research. The picture would provide proof of the scientist's statement regarding the proteins in breast cancer cells. The picture and the journal article would, hopefully, help to generate another breast cancer donation.
Some of the money from each breast cancer donation goes to biostatisticians, the men and women who must analyze the statistics on breast cancer. Biostatisticians examine carefully the data collected by all the different research scientists. They watch for evidence of linkage between environmental factors and a rise in breast cancer cases. They look for proof that a new drug could demonstrate cancer-fighting abilities.
Some of the money from each breast cancer donation helps to finance clinical trials. When statistics suggest that a drug could be used to fight cancer, that drug does not get produced on a large scale right away. First that drug must be tested in a clinical trial. The results of the clinical trial should tell the pharmaceutical company that makes the drug whether or not it can deliver sufficient cancer-fighting action. A clinical trial could also alert the medical community to any side effects that might come from taking that new drug.
Every added breast cancer donation helps to speed the completion of clinical trials. Every donation helps to speed the delivery to breast cancer patients of newer and better breast cancer drugs. That is why breast cancer survivors put lots of effort into publicizing the need for more breast cancer donations and help the national breast cancer foundation by that.