Why are we contacting you?
By law, all newly diagnosed cancer cases are reported to the North Carolina Central Cancer Registry. The Registry can provide qualified researchers with some of this information as long as they let the person's doctor know about the study first. We checked with your doctor before contacting you. You may choose not to participate.
Why is my information important?
The best way to learn what causes a disease is to study people who already have it. Although this research may not help you directly, your information may help identify some of the causes of breast cancer and determine which treatments are most effective. It is our hope that this information will reduce breast cancer occurrence and improve treatment and survival in future generations of women.
Why am I important?
If you were asked to participate, it means that you were selected to represent women in North Carolina of your race and age group. We use a random selection process to make sure that our study participants accurately represent ALL women with breast cancer in their race and age group. Therefore, once you have been asked to participate, no one can fill your place without affecting the quality of the study.
Who is participating?
About 2,000 women of all races with breast cancer living in 44 counties of North Carolina will participate between 2008 and 2012. Over 4000 women already participated in the study between 1993 and 2001.
Why are so many women needed?
Breast cancer is a disease that affects all kinds of women, but there are important and often poorly understood differences by race and age-group. For this reason, we are selecting 500 women from each of four age and race categories: Black women aged 20-49, Black women aged 50 or older, Non-black women aged 20-49, and Non-black women aged 50 or older.
What is the difference between this study and a clinical trial?
Unlike a clinical trial, we will NOT ask you to take drugs or medicine of any kind and we will NOT treat your breast cancer. Your decision about participating will not change your relationship with your doctors, the treatment they recommend, or the medical care you receive.
What does it mean to participate?
If you agree to participate, you will be part of the largest study of breast cancer in the south, one of the first studies to include black women, and the first study to look at different subtypes of breast cancer.
Participants' involvement will proceed according to the approximate time line below:
