ABOUT US

Metastatic Trial Talk (MTT) was created to address the overwhelming amount of breast cancer information available online. We carefully select news and features about metastatic breast cancer research to help patients when making treatment decisions, including whether to enter a clinical trial.

MTT was developed by BreastCancerTrials.org as a companion to Metastatic Trial Search, a clinical trial matching tool designed specifically for people with metastatic breast cancer.

Who We Are

Hongmei Yu , PhD — Editor, Journal Manager

Hongmei is a research scientist with more than fifteen years of preclinical research experience in breast cancer early detection and bio-marker discovery. She has published many high-quality research papers in top biomedical journals and presented her work on breast cancer research in national and international cancer conferences. She is passionate about translating scientific discoveries to patient care.

Désirée De Luca-Johnson, JD – Writer

Before joining BreastCancerTrials.org, Désirée was an elder law attorney — a vocation that gave her considerable experience in communicating about medical conditions to a wide variety of lay audiences. When she was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer at the age of 40, she used BreastCancerTrials.org to find and enroll in two clinical trials. Désirée’s advocacy goals include normalizing patient-provider discussions about clinical trials and helping all breast cancer patients get timely information about breast cancer clinical trials for treatment, help with side effects and advancing research.

Susan Colen — Program Director

Susan began her career at BreastCancerTrials.org in 2009, as a Program Associate and trial curator. Since 2013, she has managed the operations of BCT and its companion applications, Metastatic Trial Search and Metastatic Trial Talk and became Program Director in 2020. Her interest in research, her involvement in the breast cancer community, as well as a family history of breast cancer drives her commitment to improving awareness and access to clinical trials. She has a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research and has completed the UC Berkeley Extension’s Clinical Research Conduct and Management program.

Elizabeth Elton— Program Assistant

Elizabeth is a fourth-year undergraduate at UCLA pursuing a B.S. in Computational and Systems Biology. She contributes to the content for MTT’s COVID topic and assists with quality control and assurance of the trial registry. Elizabeth is motivated to use her skills to increase accessibility and awareness of important healthcare information.

Elly Cohen, PhD — Co-Founder and Senior Advisor

Elly was the Program Director of BreastCancerTrials.org (BCT) from its beginning as a UCSF-NCI research pilot through 2020, developing BCT into a highly regarded nationwide, non-profit service. Under her leadership, BCT grew into a family of applications that include BCT Match, BCT Browse, Metastatic Trial Search, and Metastatic Trial Talk. Elly is an active contributor as Senior Advisor at Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative, the sponsor of BCT. She is frequently invited to talk about clinical trials to patient groups and is actively involved in the Metastatic Breast Cancer Alliance. Elly has a Ph.D. in Pathology from Cornell University and is a breast cancer survivor.

About BreastCancerTrials.org

BreastCancerTrials.org (BCT) is a patient-friendly, online clinical trial matching service focused exclusively on breast cancer. It maintains a registry of over 500 studies actively recruiting patients in the USA, including clinical trials and observational studies. Conceived by patients, and developed at the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center, BCT was validated in a UCSF/NCI research pilot prior to its nationwide launch in 2008. The mission of BCT is to accelerate breast cancer research by making patient consideration of trials the norm vs. the exception. Towards that goal, BCT develops tools and services that engage patients to discuss trials with their providers as a routine option for care.

BCT is a program of Quantum Leap Health Care Collaborative, a non-profit organization affiliated with the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center.

For more information, visit BreastCancerTrials.org.

About Metastatic Trial Search

Metastatic Trial Search (MTS) is a clinical trial search tool designed specifically for patients with metastatic breast cancer. Launched in 2015, MTS was developed by BreastCancerTrials.org in collaboration with the following breast cancer advocacy organizations:

MTS is embedded on the websites of many partner sites providing patients with easy access to trial information from within their trusted communities. MTS is currently available on these sites:

For more information, visit Metastatic Trial Search.

About Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative

A 501C(3) charitable organization, Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative (QLHC) was established in 2005 as a collaboration between medical researchers at University of California, San Francisco and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Their mission is to integrate high-impact research with clinical processes and systems technology, resulting in improved data management and information systems, greater access to clinical trial matching and sponsorship, and greater benefit to providers, patients and researchers – to improve and save lives. QLHC’s portfolio includes BCT, CTMatch, I-SPY trials, and OneSource.

For more information, visit Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative