Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance Brings Awareness to Clinical Trials in Advance of the Release of MBC Connect 2.0

October 17 11:34 2019
Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance Brings Awareness to Clinical Trials in Advance of the Release of MBC Connect 2.0
National Nonprofit’s Enhanced Mobile App and Online Platform will Potentially Match Patients with Clinical Trials

New York, NY – October 17, 2019 – The Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance (MBCA), the largest coalition of nonprofit breast cancer organizations, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, and patient advocates in the U.S., today initiated a communications campaign to bring greater awareness and understanding of clinical trials to the metastatic breast cancer community in advance of the release of MBC Connect 2.0. MBC Connect is an interactive, web- and mobile-friendly patient experience registry that empowers patients in the U.S. to collaborate with researchers to advance metastatic breast cancer research, and with this new release will also potentially match patients with clinical trials.

“Depending on an individual’s cancer diagnosis, a clinical trial may be an excellent treatment option,” said Shirley A. Mertz, a metastatic breast cancer patient and Chair of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance (MBCA). “As metastatic patients, we know that our current treatment will one day stop working, and we hope that another, more effective treatment, approved because of a successful clinical trial, will be available to us. The MBC Alliance’s launch of MBC Connect 2.0 makes it possible for every patient to easily identify trials that might be a fit for them and to be able to share those trials with their healthcare provider.”

After patients enter their demographic information and disease history into the app, MBC Connect 2.0 identifies potential clinical trial matches, thus avoiding the current, complex trial search process.  As users enter additional data, all of which is kept private and encrypted, more targeted clinical trial options are provided, increasing the likelihood of finding a clinical trial that the patient qualifies for while meeting the patient’s needs.

“Through carefully conducted clinical trials, researchers and patients work together to advance breast cancer care. Clinical trials give patients access to experimental therapies that researchers believe will be more effective than current treatments,” said Elly Cohen, UCSF Assistant Professor of Surgery and Program Director at BreastCancerTrials.org. “Every patient should consider clinical trials as an option for care. MBC Connect 2.0 will help patients identify trials personalized to their situation that they can discuss with their providers when evaluating treatment options.”

“At SHARE, we recently launched a mobile app to empower people living with metastatic breast cancer to better manage their treatment and communication with their care team, so we have firsthand experience on how powerful these tools can be,” commented Christine Benjamin, Breast Cancer Program Director, SHARE Cancer Support, and Vice-Chair, Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance. “MBC Connect 2.0 will be another opportunity for MBC patients to participate in care planning by providing invaluable access to potential treatment options.”

MBCA is partnering with BreastCancerTrials.org (BCT) and Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, its parent organization, to enable clinical trial matching on MBC Connect. BCT sources its clinical trial data from ClinicalTrials.gov, the US government’s official registry of clinical trials. To create accurate and patient-friendly results, BCT updates its data from ClinicalTrials.gov on a daily basis, prepares trials for matching, writes patient-friendly summaries for each trial, and provides additional filters for narrowing match results. MBC Connect accesses the BCT/Quantum Leap Trial Matching Service via a secure connection.

“Patients participating in clinical trials can have a positive impact on the breast cancer community in a way that no one else can,” said Michael Rogan, Co-Founder & Head of Patient Engagement, Medaptive Health. “By partnering with researchers, these patients are essential to clinical trials, allowing for the discovery of potential life-saving treatments that would not exist without their contributions. A tool like MBC Connect that simplifies the process of matching patients and clinical trials will be welcomed by patients, doctors and researchers as we all work towards finding more effective treatment options that may become tomorrow’s standard of care.”

“MBC Connect 2.0 is an unbelievably powerful tool for us,” said Teri Pollastro, Co-Chair of MBCA’s Research Task Force and Co-Chair of the NW Metastatic Breast Cancer Conference. “As a patient, we receive the trials we are potentially eligible for and decide which trials we would like to discuss with our care team. Knowledge truly is power, and this feature puts the knowledge in the patient’s hands.”

MBC Connect 2.0 will soon be available on Android and iOS devices, and via web browser, in both English and Spanish, ensuring widespread availability for patients living with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S.

About the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance

The Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance (MBCA) is the largest coalition of nonprofit breast cancer organizations, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, and patient advocates in the U.S., including patients living with metastatic breast cancer, collectively working to transform and improve the lives of those living with the disease.

To learn more about the MBCA and MBC Connect visit https://www.mbcalliance.org/ or follow us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

About SHARE

SHARE is a national nonprofit that supports, educates, and empowers women affected by breast or ovarian cancer, with a special focus on medically underserved communities. Its mission is to meet women wherever they are with the insight of others who have been there too, creating a nationwide community where no one has to face breast or ovarian cancer alone. SHARE’s free services, provided in both English and Spanish, include national helplines, support groups, expert-led educational programs, community outreach, online communities, corporate education, advocacy opportunities, caregiver support, and survivor-patient navigation.

Visit www.sharecancersupport.org for more information.

About BreastCancerTrials.org

The mission of BreastCancerTrials.org (BCT) is to advance breast cancer research by making patient consideration of clinical trials the norm vs. the exception. Launched in 2008, BCT provides patient-centered, personalized clinical trial matching for newly diagnosed and metastatic breast cancer patients as well as post-treatment survivors. Its diverse registry of over 600 studies include innovative trials of targeted and immunotherapies. BCT also operates Metastatic Trial Search, a trial matching service featured on 20 patient advocacy sites, and Metastatic Trial Talk, an online portal to news and features about breast cancer research.

For more information, visit www.BreastCancerTrials.org, www.MetastaticTrialSearch.org, or www.MetastaticTrialTalk.org

About Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative

BCT is a program of Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. Quantum Leap also sponsors the I-SPY TRIALs for breast cancer (www.ispytrials.org). Quantum Leap is dedicated to integrating high-impact clinical research with patient care to improve and save lives. By bridging the gap between research and clinical care, Quantum Leap works in collaboration with patients, medical researchers at the University of California, other academic centers nationwide, healthcare innovators, and stakeholders–to accelerate learning in medicine, improve the delivery of healthcare, create better outcomes, and increase the quality of life.

For more information, visit www.quantumleaphealth.org

About Medaptive Health

Medaptive Health creates and operates products to engage and support patients as research participants. Our Interactive Study™ product offers organizations a HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based application that makes it easy to deploy participant-facing studies for clinical research. Developed on a modern, extensible, open source platform, Interactive Study automates the collection of participant-reported information using a variety of mechanisms, including surveys, timelines, and sensors. Interactive study also automates the ability to provide meaningful information back to participants via insights. Interactive Study includes clients for Android, iOS, and the web.

For more information, please visit https://medaptivehealth.com

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