UCSF Announces Expanded BreastCancerTrials.or...(to increase the rate at which new treatm...),Health

With the addition of the new one-of-a-kind SecureConnect feature, users have a confidential platform from which they can directly contact participating research sites and invite a coordinator to view their personal information to discuss potential eligibility for a trial. This saves time and helps determine whether or not a visit to the research site, which could be miles away, would be worthwhile or necessary. Those who register for the new Trial Alert Service receive automatic notification each time a new trial matching their profile is added to BreastCancerTrials.org.

Conceived by cancer patients and members of the cancer community, the non-profit website service is operated by QuantumLeap Healthcare Collaborative with on-going research and development by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care and generous funding from the Safeway Foundation.

Carefully conducted clinical trials are the safest and most effective way to find new methods of preventing, diagnosing, and treating breast cancer, yet very few patients are currently aware that they are eligible for participation in research studies, making recruitment for important trials a significant challenge, according to a report in the "Journal of the American Medical Association."1

The American Cancer Society estimates that about three to five percent of adult cancer patients nationwide currently enroll in clinical trials. With this in mind, BreastCancerTrials.org is a valued resource for patients and physicians seeking to expand their knowledge of trials being conducted in a variety of settings across the country.

"Most women who get a breast cancer diagnosis today will survive--and every advance has come as a result of a clinical trial," Dr. Esserman says, "Wher
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