FORT DETRICK, Md.- On January 2, 2025, President Joe Biden named longtime breast cancer advocate, Fran M. Visco, among the twenty recipients of the Presidential Citizens Medal. Historically, the president awards this medal to citizens who perform exemplary service to their fellow citizens or the nation and is the second highest civilian honor.

“The CDMRP expresses our sincere congratulations to Ms. Visco,” Col. Mark Hartell, the CDMRP director, said. “Through her hard work and determination, the Breast Cancer Research Program became the genesis of CDMRP, supporting research that yields high-impact advancements for service members and their families, veterans, and the American public.”

Visco’s work led to the first congressional appropriations to the Department of Defense for breast cancer research. Congress appropriated $210 million in fiscal 1993 and created the Breast Cancer Research Program. The BCRP became the first program of the CDMRP.

“[Visco] fought tirelessly and fearlessly to increase federal funding for breast cancer research, early detection education, and access to women’s health care,” the White House said in a statement.

Through fiscal 2024, Congress appropriated $4.39 billion in funding to the BCRP.

BCRP-funded research made seminal contributions to important advances in care, including six FDA-approved drugs and devices, nine diagnostics and biomarkers in clinical use, and three changes in clinical practice.

The Breast Cancer Research Program encourages the scientific community to design research to address the urgency of ending breast cancer.

The program challenges scientists to pursue high-risk, high-reward research, explore new paradigms that could lead to critical discoveries, and make an unprecedented impact on breast cancer.

The BCRP also promotes synergistic collaborations across disciplines and integrates scientists and consumers in unique and meaningful research partnerships.

A key element of CDMRP funding is the two-tier review process that ensures both scientific excellence and programmatic relevance.

The review process, designed with guidance from the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, integrates consumers, members of the military, and clinical and research scientists to serve as full voting members on panels to review the proposed research towards the relevancy and impact on the community affected.

Visco said this aspect of partnership and collaboration “changed the way research is done” during a presentation to CDMRP in 2020.

The BCRP remains one of the largest research programs within CDMRP with a $150 million appropriation in fiscal 2024.

“We are here to support the right research that will achieve the mission, to really make a difference,” Visco said during the presentation to CDMRP.

Since the initial breast cancer research funding, the CDMRP grew to more than 35 diverse program areas encompassing diseases, conditions, and injuries identified by Congress for funding.

For more information about the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, our research programs, and research highlights, please visit the website at https://cdmrp.health.mil/.