About Us

The Northern California Breast Cancer Family Registry is a registry of families with a history of breast cancer. Over 4,000 women and men diagnosed with breast cancer between 1995 and 2009 in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area or in the Sacramento Area and over 7,100 of their family members have completed questionnaires and donated blood or buccal samples since we began recruitment in 1996. We continue to do active follow-up with our participants by sending out follow-up questionnaires every few years in order to receive updates, as well as information on new topics of interest.

A unique feature of the Northern California Family Registry is the racial/ethnic diversity of our participants. Seventy-five percent of our participants are from Hispanic, African American and Asian American families. A high level of participation in data and biospecimen collection allows us to be a leader in answering the many unresolved questions surrounding racial/ethnic disparities in breast cancer incidence and survival.

The research team at the Northern California Family Registry is comprised of study coordinators, research assistants, interviewers, phlebotomists, and data analysts. Our team is lead by Dr. Esther M. John, Principal Investigator and Dr. Allison Kurian, co-Investigator.