High-Risk Program

Women At Risk

The Women At Risk High-Risk Program is a research, education and support program for women at high risk for developing breast cancer. It was founded at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center in 1991 by a grassroots partnership of physicians and patient/volunteers who recognized that high-risk women would benefit most from interventions aimed at early diagnosis and prevention of breast cancer. From 1991 through May, 2011, participants in the WAR High-Risk Program were enrolled in the WAR High-Risk Registry, which was used for research and studies on breast cancer prevention, early diagnosis, and risk reduction.

As of June 2011, Women At Risk is partnering with the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC) to manage a computerized registry with comprehensive data on breast cancer patients and high-risk patients. All new high-risk patients seen in the Breast Service will have the option to enroll in the HICCC breast cancer research database. The HICCC database was initiated in 2007 and already has more than 900 patients enrolled, which include about 200 high risk patients. By combining our efforts, the number of overall patients will be increased which will enhance the use of the HICCC database as a research tool.

We will no longer be enrolling high-risk patients in the WAR database, but will continue to use the database as a research tool. Research databases such as the WAR database and the HICCC database are important because they allow medical professionals to analyze data about breast cancer and conduct research studies on topics such as prevention, risk reduction, early detection, or treatment.

Participating women in the high-risk program also have access to educational seminars, WAR support groups, informational resources, and access to the WAR Resource Library.