Celebrating 30 years of improving breast cancer screening, detection, and outcomes through research!
The CMR was established in 1994 by Dr. Bonnie Yankaskas as a community-based mammography registry and has served as a resource for researchers interested in studying the breast cancer screening and diagnostic care continuum across North Carolina for the last 30 years. Over time, the CMR has grown to incorporate the study of emerging breast imaging modalities, including digital mammography, digital breast tomosynthesis, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging. Dr. Louise Henderson assumed the leadership of CMR in 2011 and in September 2024, Dr. Sarah Nyante became Director of the CMR. Since 1995, CMR has received funding from the National Cancer Institute to study community-based breast imaging, and to function as a member site for the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC). The BCSC combines data from breast imaging registries across the United States (e.g., California, Washington, Colorado, Illinois, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont, and North Carolina) to form a national resource for the evaluation of risk-based breast cancer screening and generate evidence to inform USPSTF recommendations, American Cancer Society guidelines, and the ACR BI-RADS Atlas. The CMR has also been supported by the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, The American Cancer Society, and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Since 1994, CMR has grown tremendously. Through our collaboration with over 50 breast imaging practices, the CMR has enrolled over 860,000 individuals and collected data on millions of breast imaging exams. The CMR includes participants from all 100 North Carolina counties. The CMR allows researchers to conduct studies to answer important questions about how well breast imaging detects cancer, factors that affect breast cancer risk, the types of cancer found through breast imaging, and how different breast imaging tools are used in community settings. Over the past 30 years, with the support of collaborating imaging facilities and participants across North Carolina, the CMR has contributed to improving the practice of early breast cancer detection and diagnosis, to identifying risk factors for breast cancer, to providing feedback to radiologists to improve mammography quality, to guiding future research and interventions, and to informing the public.
