The National Cancer Institute has awarded $11.5 million in federal funding to the University of Alabama at Birmingham for research aimed at providing better treatment, prevention and detection of breast cancer.

The grant will keep UAB's Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence alive.

Dr. Kirby Bland, chair of UAB's Department of Surgery, said the funds will be distributed over a five-year period, and will help scientists develop new drugs for prevention, better tests for detection and new therapeutic agents for treatment.

The money secures an initiative at the medical center that had been threatened by budget constraints. Only 11 medical centers in the nation have similar research programs.