BCU PROGRAMS

In 1984, as a professor at the University of Miami, Dr Neil Love observed with interest that several therapies being extensively utilized by research leaders in their practices, were underutilized in the community. Fascinated and troubled by this dichotomy, Dr Love pilot tested a number of different ideas for educational projects designed to bridge this treatment gap. In 1988, Dr Love launched Breast Cancer Update. The rationale behind the series was to provide community physicians continual access to research leader opinion.

The BCU model proved extremely popular and successful, and over the last 16 years, the series has evolved into a comprehensive, CME-certified audio, print and online educational tool. The program is distributed nine times a year to over 11,000 medical oncologists and hematologists. For the series Dr Love has interviewed almost every major breast cancer research leader in the world and has forged unique relationships with many of them, including Sir Richard Peto, Gabriel Hortobagyi, Michael Baum and Cliff Hudis.

In November 2000, Dr Love and the Breast Cancer Update team commissioned a market research study to assess the impact and effectiveness of the Breast Cancer Update series. One hundred medical oncologists were randomly contacted by ReedHaldyMcIntosh, an independent research firm, and queried about the series. Seventy-five percent of respondents were aware of Breast Cancer Update and over 60 percent reported as current listeners. Even more significant, 64 percent of those reported listeners claimed to have incorporated information from the series into their clinical practice. Follow-up studies conducted in 2001, 2003 and 2004 verified these extraordinary results and helped confirm that Breast Cancer Update is one the most trusted and popular educational sources in the medical community. Currently, three breast cancer-related audio series are available,