Clinical Trials

Clinical trials are research studies in which new treatments are tested against current standard treatments. They involve patients taking new drugs or undergoing new treatments to see whether these are effective in combating disease.

There are numerous breast cancer clinical trials currently underway throughout New Zealand and the rest of the world. These aim to identify new and more effective ways of treating breast cancer or ways of preventing it from occurring.

On this page you can find out more about how clinical trials work and the clinical trials that are currently underway in New Zealand. To find out more about the latest international research, check out our research news.

• How does a clinical trial work?
  Research nurse Jenni Scarlett tells us more about clinical trials,the different types of trials, reasons for participating and trial protocols.
  
  
• Why participate in a clinical trial?
  Breast cancer survivor Raewyn Calvert has been involved in a cinical trial and talks about reasons to participate in breast cancer research.
  
  
• The SORBET trial 
  This clinical trial looks at the possibility of treating women with Triple Negative Breast Cancer with Tamoxifen.
  
  
• The Supremo Trial
  This clinical trial looks at the benefits of radiation therapy for women who have had a mastectomy for breast cancer and who may be at 'moderate' risk of the cancer returning. This trial is only open to women in the Waikato.
  
  
• The Marianne Trial
  An international trial which will involve up to 1092 patients with HER2-positive breast cancer.  This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of using a new drug known T-DM1. This trial is only open to women in Waikato and Auckland.  You can find out more about research into TDM-1 here.
  
  
• The SNAC-2 Trial
  This trial compares two operations for detecting cancer cells in the lymph nodes of women with early breast cancer - sentinal node biopsy versus auxillary clearance.  It is open to wwomen in the North Shore, Waikato, Christchurch, Palmerston North and Tauranga.
  
  
• The Trog Trial
  This trial is for women who have ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast and aims to see whether improvements can be made to radiation treatment by giving women an extra treatment dose.  It is available to women in Waikato, Christchurch and Auckland.
  
  
• The LATER trial
  This study examines whether being given the drug Letrozole a year or more after completing hormonal therapy can prevent or delay breast cancer from recurring in postmenopausal women.
  
  
• The SOLE trial
  The aim of this study is to determine whether the risk of breast cancer recurring can be reduced further by taking Letrozole for a another five years in post menopausal women.