Breast cancer is the second most common cancer in the United States for women. In 2022, more than 3.8 million women were living with a diagnosis of breast cancer, more than any previous year, and this number continues to increase. At the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, we are proud to offer a program to address the needs of breast cancer survivors.

Integrating research and survivorship education, this multi-ethnic Breast Cancer Survivorship Program is developing a new blood-based test to identify residual disease that may be undetected by mammograms or other forms of imaging.  Doing so will help us identify early breast cancer recurrence before it has spread. The research team will validate this novel blood test in a cohort of 1,000 women of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, leveraging the USC Norris Population Research Core and the USC Norris Data Science Core.  To develop a way to predict the likelihood of breast cancer recurrence, artificial intelligence approaches will be used to integrate biological and clinical data with information on carcinogenic exposures in the patient’s environment, lifestyle data, and social determinants of health

This research builds upon foundation work by Dr. Salhia and her team in the Bench with Bedside Initiative. An important component of the Bench with Bedside Initiative is the focus on a new model of research in which patients and researchers build a closer relationship founded on transparency and ongoing engagement.  We are expanding this research and patient engagement approach to the Eileen McGeever Breast Cancer Survivorship Program.  Learn more about our study by clicking below.