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1992.10.02 :  Grant -- NIH Women's Health Initiative

Contact:  Marc Stern (301) 496-2535
October 2, 1992

     HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today announced the
award of a $140 million, 15-year contract to launch the National
Institutes of Health "Women's Health Initiative," the largest
coordinated study of women's health ever undertaken.
     The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle,
Wash., was awarded the contract and named as clinical
coordinating center for the initiative.  As coordinating center,
it will oversee the work of what will ultimately be a network of
45 clinical centers nationwide carrying out the initiative.
     "The NIH Women's Health Initiative is a project of national
importance that is both unprecedented and overdue," Secretary
Sullivan said.  "Health research for women is finally moving
toward the equal status it deserves."
     Dr. Sullivan said the initiative reflects the commitment of
President Bush, as well as the leadership of the U.S. Public
Health Service under Assistant Secretary for Health James Mason,
M.D., and the National Institutes of Health under Director
Bernadine Healy, M.D.
     The initiative has been in planning and contract competition
stages for about 18 months.  It will evaluate the effectiveness
of various promising interventions in preventing a number of
major diseases in older women.  The full 15-year project, costing
$625 million, is expected to involve more than 150,000 women.
     "For too many years, medical research has paid too little
attention to the leading causes of death and disability as they
specifically affect women," Secretary Sullivan said.  "This is
especially true for studies of chronic diseases and their
prevention in mature women.  The new NIH initiative is an
important step toward filling the knowledge gap and correcting
the bias that has existed in the design of our research
programs."

     The initiative will examine treatment and prevention
strategies for coronary heart disease, cancer and osteoporosis. 
It includes both clinical and observational studies.

     Dr. Healy said the coordinating center "will function as the
central nervous system of the Women's Health Initiative."

     "The Seattle project will make certain that each clinical
center holds to the highest scientific and administrative
standards," she said.  "The Hutchinson Center has extensive
experience in coordinating large medical research trials,
especially dietary interventions.  And it has distinguished
itself in the management of other NIH clinical trials of women."

     The first 15 of the 45 clinical centers will be named early
in 1993, while the remaining 30 will probably be named early in
1994.  The first 15 centers will develop, implement and refine
the overall program for the initiative, which Dr. Healy called
"the most extensive studies of women's health ever conducted."

     The objectives of the clinical trials are to test the
benefit and risk of hormone replacement therapy, dietary
modification, and supplementation with calcium plus Vitamin D on
the overall health of post-menopausal women age 50-79.  With some
overlap of participants in the different studies, approximately
57,000 women will participate in the clinical trials.

     The goals of the observational study will be to improve risk
prediction of coronary heart disease, breast cancer, fractures
and total mortality in postmenopausal women, to examine the
impact of changes in characteristics on disease and total
mortality; and to create a resource of data and biological
samples which can be used to identify new risk factors and/or
biomarkers for disease.  Some 100,000 women, will be participants
in the observational study.

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