HealthNews Salutes: BreastCancerTrials.org

October is national Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a time when pink ribbons adorn everyone from senators to janitors; when football players wear pink shoes and sweatbands; and when we salute organizations working on behalf of the millions of women who have battled or who will battle with breast cancer.

One such organization is BreastCancerTrials.org, the only non-profit website dedicated exclusively to matching individuals with breast cancer to clinical trials.  The easy-to-use, free service provides accurate, patient-centered info on chemotherapy trials funded by the National Cancer Institute, public research foundations, and the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry.

BreastCancerTrials.org seeks to demystify the trial process and empower people with information to make health decisions that make the most sense for them individually. The new TRIAL ALERT feature lets users know any time a new trial is added to the database.

The site also endeavors to educate about preventive trials such as stress-reduction, nutritional balance, or other wellness trials—in efforts to avoid a cancer recurrence and stay healthy.  Founded by two San Francisco Bay Area breast cancer patients who struggled to find accurate, useful information about clinical trials, BreastCancerTrials.org is a collaboration with UCSF doctors, who assisted in the creation of the site.

The free service is operated by Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative with ongoing research and development by the UCSF Center of Excellence for Breast Cancer Care (COE-BCC). Originally funded by a $1 million grant from the Safeway Foundation, this service tracks the 160+ trials occurring at over 1,500 facilities nationwide.

Breast cancer patients probably never thought they would be seeking out a matchmaking site, but BreastCancerTrials.org can make a difference for many seeking treatment.