CANCER RESEARCH STUDIES SISTERS.

Byline: CONNIE LLANOS  Staff Writer

Donna and Gail Castlebury were inseparable.

Only three years apart, the sisters were often confused for twins. They moved across the country together, from Massachusetts to New York to Los Angeles, pursuing their dreams, Donna as a dancer, Gail as an actress.

But that all changed in October 2001 when Gail was diagnosed with breast cancer, and Castlebury became destined for a study of the disease that would begin six years later.

``I would have given up my life for her,'' Castlebury said, her calm voice beginning to tremble.

At every doctor's appointment and every treatment session, Donna was beside her sister.

``She would look to me to be strong for her, to give her answers. It broke my heart I couldn't do more.''

Donna Castlebury lost her sister Gail in 2003.

Like her, thousands of sisters across the country have had to watch their sisters suffer through breast cancer. They have all asked the same questions -- why me?

A new landmark study aims to provide answers.

The Sister Study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, is a nationwide effort to learn how environment and genetics affect the chances of women getting breast cancer. Castlebury will take part.

The study plans to follow for 10 years 50,000 healthy women whose sisters have contracted the disease.

Researchers say this study is the first of its kind for many reasons including its focus on environmental issues and genetics, its large study group and its active effort to attract women of all races and walks of life.

As of Friday, 31,034 participants had been recruited since the study became a nationwide effort in 2004.

Passing out fliers and pamphlets at local health fairs, community centers and job sites, recruiters are hoping to gather 50,000 female participants by September.

The women who sign up must be sisters of breast cancer patients, 35 to 74, live in the United States or Puerto Rico and never have contracted breast cancer.

Once women sign up, researchers will take blood and urine samples, as well as dust samples and samples of household items such as beauty products and cleaning products from their homes.

``We are trying to ask as many questions, and look at as many things to ensure we don't miss anything,'' NIH staff scientist Lisa Deroo said. ``We are looking at these things which may have been studied in animals, maybe even human, but never on this type of scale.''

Separating the sister study from many other cancer studies is its focus on attracting women of a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds, something other studies have failed to do.

Deroo said previous studies on breast cancer have focused on white, middle-class women.

``The problems this creates is that we don't know if these risk factors are true for women of other ethnicities,'' Deroo said.

Having children later in life is believed to be a major risk factor for breast cancer, a factor that doesn't apply to women -- often minorities -- who give birth younger, Deroo said.

Occupations are also playing an important role in the study, Deroo said, adding that women in industrial occupations are being heavily recruited for the study, since they are exposed to various kinds of chemicals.

``We are trying to find all of these unique components,'' recruitment coordinator Lourdes Suarez said.

``We want these result to, down the line, apply to all the women who live in this country who have been affected by breast cancer.''

Still, for many of the women participating in the study, it is about obtaining answers.

In Santa Clarita, some 125 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2006, according to an American Cancer Society estimation.

Just last week Santa Clarita resident Joanne Jones received her first cancer-free mammogram in about eight months.

``I am just getting back on my feet,'' Jones said.

One lumpectomy, eight sessions of chemotherapy and 33 radiation treatments later she is ecstatic she has gone into remission, but she still hopes to get some answers.

Her sister Kay Wiggins, whom Jones leaned upon for emotional support and midnight counseling sessions at least three times a week, just signed up for the Sister Study. Jones said the relevance of finding a cause and cure for cancer goes beyond her and her sister.

``I have two daughters and two granddaughters; I need to make sure they are safe.''

For more information about the study, visit www.sisterstudy.org. A Spanish-language Web site is also available at www.estudiodehermanas.org or call (877) 4-SISTER.

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