UC Davis Medical Center lauded for highest enrollment in breast cancer study

UC Davis Medical Center has been recognized by the National Cancer Institute of Canada for enrolling the 100th participant in an international study to determine whether the drug exemestane can prevent breast cancer in healthy, postmenopausal women at high risk for the disease.

Since joining the study in 2004, UC Davis Medical Center has enrolled the highest number of participants in the trial of all the 56 participating medical centers. UC Davis Medical Center has enrolled 102 of the trial’s 817 subjects. The University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center has the second-highest number of enrollees at 83.

John Robbins, professor of general medicine and principal investigator of the study, said, “UC Davis has always done very well with recruitment in these large, multi-centered trials. Our group frequently leads the nation in recruitment.”

Robbins credited the nature of the Sacramento community and its relationship with the medical center. “There is a good relationship between the medical center and the community,” Robbins said. “We put a lot of effort into maintaining good relationships with our subjects and their doctors, and the medical center does the same with its patients.”

Other members of the exemestane study at the medical center are: Sandra Bennett, an administrative nurse in general medicine; Denise Macias, study coordinator; and Elizabeth Winward, a supervisor in internal medicine.

UC Davis Medical Center was one of the first centers in the United States chosen to participate in the exemestane study, funded by the National Cancer Institute of Canada. Ultimately, the trial will enroll 5,000 women.