With the national launch of BreastCancerTrials.org, the nearly 200,000 women across the country who will be affected by breast cancer this year will have a better chance of becoming one of the 2.5 million survivors.

Developed by the UCSF Center of Excellence in Breast Cancer Care and under the leadership of Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, BreastCancerTrials.org is a non-profit online clinical matching service that connects at-risk and diagnosed breast cancer patients with experimental therapies. Women enter their medical history into the confidential, secure site, and are then matched with clinical trials for which they may be eligible. By participating in clinical trials, patients enable the development and improvement of therapies that may increase prevention and early detection, and survival of those with and at-risk for breast cancer.

Screenshot of the new BreastCancerTrials.org website

"The benefits that are now available to breast cancer patients – the treatments, the therapeutics – are all available due to clinical trials," says Elly Cohen, PhD, program director for BreastCancerTrials.org. Cohen, who is a breast cancer survivor, had options that weren't available when her mother lost her battle with the disease 30 years before. "I often think about that today. We as patients need to make decisions that are right for us, but we also need to think about how we can contribute to the breast cancer community, now and for the future."

Together UCSF's Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center – an integral part of the UCSF National Center of Excellence in Women's Health – and the Safeway Foundation hope that by educating patients about clinical trials and bringing awareness to existing studies, BreastCancerTrials.org will make trial participation consideration the norm rather than the exception. First conceived by Joan Schreiner and Joanne Tyler – breast cancer patients who had difficulty finding clinical trials appropriate to their needs – the site grew from a regional pilot engineered by UCSF and the National Cancer Institute to a national resource available to patients free of charge, thanks to a $2 million gift from the Safeway Foundation. The Safeway Foundation's donation strengthens the organization's commitment to finding a cure for breast cancer.

"We are extremely fortunate to have developed this partnership with one of the leading and most innovative breast cancer centers in North America," said Larree Renda, Safeway Inc. executive vice president and Safeway Foundation chair. "It makes perfect sense for the Safeway Foundation and UCSF to unite our resources toward a common vision of improving the options and prognosis for women with breast cancer."

For more information on breast cancer treatment clinical trials, visit www.BreastCancerTrials.org.

For more information on supporting breast cancer research at UCSF, contact Katherine Tick at 415/353-9899 or KTick@support.ucsf.edu.