PROGRAMS

Research Programs

The Global Cancer Institute’s projects are based upon a strong research foundation. We are focused on identifying barriers to cancer control.

Young women's breast cancer database
Collecting data on risk factors & more

Young women's global breast cancer patient database

Breast cancer in young women is much more common in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) than in high-income countries (HICs).

In fact, breast cancer in young women is considered a “rare disease” in HICs and is difficult to study due to the relatively low number of cases and because most clinical trials exclude younger women from their cohorts.

Even though this disease represents a much larger medical and socioeconomic burden on communities in LMICs, no aggregate clinical and epidemiological data exists to study the characteristics and needs of this rare, but important, subset of patients.

Our growing database helps doctors assess and treat breast cancer.

To tailor interventions, treatments, and supportive care, GCI collects data on:

  • Lifestyle
  • Genetic risk factors
  • Psychological and emotional needs
  • Quality of life
  • Clinical and pathological characteristics of breast cancer in young women

Our database is an efficient way to collect important lifestyle and clinical information from young patients.

Using tablets, patients can fill out simple surveys in waiting rooms, creating a huge body of global data that will help doctors around the world better understand cancer in this unique patient population.

In this way, our database will lead to treatment with the best clinical practices, improving patient outcomes and quality of life.

Global Cancer Institute helping underserved cancer patients worldwide
Clinical Care Surveys by Global Cancer Institute
Establishing best practices in cancer care

Clinical Care Surveys

To understand the current state of cancer care in different countries, GCI performs widespread Clinical Care Surveys with global doctors.

We communicate directly with practitioners to understand the challenges and difficulties they face every day. By better understanding what’s broken, we can find more effective ways of implementing change.

These surveys use globally accepted cancer care guidelines to assess most common practices, knowledge gaps, and disparities among regions. This creates a baseline “snapshot” of the status of cancer care and allows GCI to plan appropriate interventions to tackle the gaps and disparities we find.

For example, if GCI finds that many doctors in one region of a country are showing very diverse opinions on the best cancer practices, we would intervene by opening a new Global Tumor Board site in that region.

In this way, we can shift patterns of practice toward global “gold standards,” and thereby improve the outcomes of patients in these regions. For each doctor we reach, we can impact the care of at least 1,000 patients per year!