Website helps cancer patients select treatment

Posted at: 11/16/2009 8:23 AM | Updated at: 11/16/2009 8:36 AM
By: Marianna Favro, NBC News

"My initial diagnosis was in 2006 and then again in 2008."

Two-time breast cancer survivor Valerie Gardner wants the best treatment available.

"After my initial diagnosis actually, I became interested in finding out about clinical studies." Gardner said.

But with so many trials out there, Gardner found it overwhelming to research which one was best for her, until she found a new website, breastcancertrials.org.

"All of a sudden in my computer, you've been matched."

Gardner jokes that it's like match.com.

You put in your personal information and the site matches you up with a trial that could be right for you.

"In working with this website, suddenly I get choices.” Gardner said. “I have decisions to make. I get to do what I want to do and what's best for me, so it's a very empowering feeling."

There are hundred of breast cancer trials going on throughout the country.

Elly Cohen, a breast cancer survivor who manages the site out of UCSF, says many patients don't realize they qualify.

"One of the biggest myths is that trials are only for people who have run out of options and that's really not the case at all…” says Cohen.

In fact, there are trials for breast cancer prevention, for post cancer patients and for people who have been recently diagnosed.

Right now, Dr. Laura Esserman is looking for hundreds of patients to participate in a clinical trial for women with advanced breast cancer.

She says such trials are the key to finding a cure.

Dr. Esserman says clinical trials are how treatments become viable.

"Everything we have ever learned about breast cancer, every advance has come out of clinical trials and I think that we can very soon see a time when people don't have to worry about dying from breast cancer."

A website making a life saving connection to treatment, helping women now and in the future.

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