Breast Cancer Database

Breast cancer (BC) is the leading cause of cancer and the second most common cause of cancer related mortality in the United States. Although the prognosis of patients with BC has greatly improved over the past few years, there are still many unanswered questions. There is growing interest in identifying markers for treatment de-escalation or intensification in early and advanced breast cancer as well as in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). Additionally, there are well known differences in disease biology and outcomes in groups from diverse genetic ancestry. With selected African American/Black populations having more triple negative BC and in general worse prognosis than other groups. Conversely, Asian/Pacific islander populations have a lower incidence and overall better outcomes. The source of these differences is multifactorial and should be studied in an integrative manner, assessing disease biology, socio-cultural factors, access to healthcare and many other aspects. Racial and ethnic minorities have been historically underrepresented from clinical research and there is an unmet need to study diverse populations to better understand differences in outcomes, toxicities with the goal to close the mortality gap and improve BC outcomes of all patients. At Tufts Medical Center, we treat a uniquely diverse patient population and a prospective creation of a database may allow us to obtain information about disease biology, treatment, social determinants of health of our patients to try to answer some of the ongoing questions with the goal to inform future clinical trial design and with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.