The Global Cancer Institute (GCI), Boston, has expanded its young women’s breast cancer database program for patients in Brazil.

Women with breast cancer in Brazil have a 5-year survival rate of 58%, versus 84% in North America, and Brazil has a large proportion of breast cancer patients who are under the age of 40. In addition, Brazilian women are diagnosed at later stages than North Americans, a trend that also exists in other low- and middle-income countries. According to GCI, despite the high burden of breast cancer among younger women, their specific needs—clinically, psychologically, emotionally, and logistically—are currently not studied or addressed in a systematic way.

Angelica Nogueira-Rodrigues, MD, PhD, oncologist with the Federal University of Minas Gerais with her research team in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She will be the principal investigator of GCI's first breast cancer database site in Brazil.

Angelica Nogueira-Rodrigues, MD, PhD, oncologist with the Federal University of Minas Gerais with her research team in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She will be the principal investigator of GCI’s first breast cancer database site in Brazil.

GCI already runs a successful young women’s breast cancer database program in Mexico, located in Mexico City and Monterrey, where data are collected weekly. In addition to clinical data, GCI collects information about quality of life, family history of breast cancer, sexual function, and psychosocial characteristics of these women to get a full picture of their disease and its context.

The Brazilian cancer database comprises several tablet-based questionnaires that young women can fill out while they are in the waiting room before an appointment.

“Breast cancer is reaching epidemic proportions in Brazil and our young women’s breast cancer database program is designed to gather critical information on these women so that we can help advance cancer prevention and awareness and overall improve a woman’s quality of life with breast cancer,” says Paul Goss, FRCP, MB BCh, PhD, director of breast center research at Massachusetts General Hospital and founder and chairman of GCI. “The program is currently underway in Mexico, and we plan to expand the database in Panama and Peru in 2017. Our findings will inform culturally tailored interventions to address the unique needs of these women and help improve breast cancer care in Latin America and other regions.”

For more information, visit GCI.