Excerpt:

There is no starched white lab coat for Dr. Laura Esserman. Instead, the tall and striking breast cancer researcher, surgeon and visionary favors colorful clothes, high heels and, on a recent day, metallic blue nail polish.

Before she operates, just as the general anesthetic is being administered, Esserman sings the patient’s requested song. A talented musician with a voice for opera, Esserman delivers songs as varied as “Don’t You Fret” from “Les Miserables” to the Sarah Palin rap from “Saturday Night Live.”

“It’s all about equalizing the relationship between doctor and patient and putting people at ease,” said Esserman, head of breast cancer research and treatment at UCSF’s Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center and the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Care Center at Mount Zion Hospital. “You can’t always alter biology, but you can alter the process, and make a difference in your patients’ lives.”

See the full article here.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/20/DDSF18KFH2.DTL

Revolutionary statewide UC collaboration targets breast cancer

The Safeway Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Safeway Inc., has given QuantumLeap HealthCare  $250,000 to fund a combination of development and operational support of a unique, national website designed to match breast cancer patients with clinical trials nationwide.

The BreastCancerTrials.org website represents a major advance in the ability of individuals to conveniently find appropriate breast cancer trials. The free service offered by BreastCancerTrials.org will directly benefit individuals who have, or are at risk of developing, breast cancer through their support of prevention, early detection, decision support tools and survivorship.

More information on this service can be found at www.breastcancertrials.org.

The Safeway Foundation

Established with an initial grant by Safeway Inc. in 2001, the Safeway Foundation follows through on its vision with contributions that support hunger relief, education, people with disabilities, and health and human services. The Safeway Foundation is making a difference by improving the quality of life in the communities where we work and live.

BreastCancerTrials.org provides patient-friendly descriptions and information for over 160 trials now underway at more than 1,500 medical facilities across the country. Visitors can either browse the service on a one-time basis, or save their personal health histories to the site’s secure servers for continual matching with newly listed trials. The site features trials for detecting and treating breast cancer and improving quality of life; trials are sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and other government agencies, private industry and non-profit foundations.

“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.

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.

BreastCancerTrials.org was conceived by two breast cancer patients, turned patient advocates, Joan Schreiner and Joanne Tyler, who knew from Joan’s experience how difficult it was to find clinical trials while dealing with the day-to-day demands of metastatic illness. Their own challenges prompted them to envision an easy-to-use website that could help other patients learn more about the role clinical trials play in advancing breast cancer care, and identify trials that might be right for each individual. Physicians at UCSF’s Breast Care Center embraced Joan and Joanne’s idea and in partnership with the NCI, built a prototype of BreastCancerTrials.org, and subsequently proved that it would work.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — If you were diagnosed with cancer, would you consider joining a medical research trial? Many doctors certainly hope you would — but a new study suggests that isn’t happening – even though future medical breakthroughs depend on it.

The study shows only nine percent of women have ever participated in a medical research study. Doctors at UCSF didn’t need a study to tell them that – this is creating significant problems with their research. So they are trying to do something about it.

Participating in a clinical trial doesn’t necessarily mean you will be stared at like a specimen or that the end is near.

“People think ‘oh I am a guinea pig’ – you’re not a guinea pig. People may think that trials are just the last resort and only for people who have run out of options  that is certainly not true,” said Laura Esserman, MD, Director, Carol Frank Breast Care Center.