Dr. Andrea Glassberg’s research isn’t designed to find a new treatment for cancer, but the research she conducts to learn why people participate in clinical trials will certainly help speed the process.

With fewer than five percent of cancer patients taking part in clinical trials, researchers agree that involving more patients will allow them to develop safer and more effective treatments faster. But how do you encourage more people to participate?

That’s where Dr. Glassberg’s research at the University of California, San Francisco is essential. She studies why people become involved in clinical trials in the first place, with the hope of motivating more people to participate. “The field of cancer research affords people incredible opportunities for treatment and cures,” Dr. Glassberg says. “We need to get people involved so the discoveries of science can help them.”

It was her grandmother’s experience with cancer and the inquisitiveness it fostered in her that led Dr. Glassberg to want to become a physician. Dr. Glassberg, a fellow at UCSF Medical Center, was just 11 years old when her grandmother began her struggle with ovarian and then breast cancer, and during the long course of her illness, Dr. Glassberg asked many questions. Her grandmother died before Dr. Glassberg graduated from medical school and before she began her doctoral dissertation research on genetic testing for ovarian and breast cancer.

Dr. Glassberg has been an avid cyclist since she began racing on the Yale University cycling team, and she continued to compete throughout medical and graduate school. She’s eager for the challenge of the Bristol-Myers Squibb Tour of Hope™, and says she’ll derive energy and inspiration just by being a part of it.

Dr. Glassberg believes her research will one day make an important contribution to medical research. Yet being a member of the Tour of Hope Team allows her to make a difference right now. “The Tour of Hope is going to reach so many people throughout the country who might not otherwise be aware of clinical trials,” she says. “It will allow me to accomplish so much more than I could as an individual.”