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Breast cancer was well represented at this morning’s launch of the My Life Matters campaign. Twenty patient advocate organisations turned up representing over 1 million NZ patients needing unfunded medicines. With the tagline ‘You are one diagnosis away from moving to Australia’, the campaign is a call to action that aims to raise awareness, promote policy changes and engage politicians to ensure there is equitable access to…
BCAC Committee Member, Metavivor and medical writer Marion Barnett recently reviewed all the latest information on the treatment of advanced breast cancer in New Zealand and overseas. Marion has written an excellent article describing our current situation for each sub-type, including which treatments are recommended internationally and which are available here. Unfortunately, New Zealand is still a long way from providing the standards of care recommended in international guidelines and…
Researchers have engineered gold nanoparticles to target blood vessels in tumours and make them leaky so that chemotherapy drugs can get in and do their work more easily. Tumours have their own blood supply and it is already known that these blood vessels behave differently from those in normal tissue.
Researchers at the National University of Singapore had already found that some kinds of nanoparticles could make endothelium (like the…
If you do, and you don’t really need any more stuff, why not set up a Gift Registry with The Good Registry? That means your family and friends can celebrate your big day without fuss and you can all support BCAC at the same time. It’s easy to do – here’s how:
Step 1: Head to …
New research, examining genes in tissue samples from women with DCIS, has identified a set of genes which could be used as markers to predict if the DCIS will progress to invasive cancer or not.
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is currently classed as ‘pre-invasive cancer’ that has not yet spread beyond the ducts of the breast. It is often picked up on a mammogram, where tell-tale patterns of microcalcifications, specific to DCIS, can be seen…
Women with obesity when diagnosed with early breast cancer have a higher risk of recurrence or a second cancer compared with women whose weight is in the normal range, but losing weight after a diagnosis can be difficult.
Recent results from the US-based clinical trial, BWEL (Breast Cancer Weight Loss), showed that women enrolled in a telephone-based weight loss program lost an average of 4.8% of their original weight after 12 months. The…
Ribociclib (Kisqali) is already used to treat advanced hormone receptor-positive (HR-positive) breast cancer. Now new research has shown it can also reduce the risk of recurrence when used in early breast cancer.
Ribociclib is known to improve survival when given to people with advanced HR-positive breast cancer. It belongs to a group of medicines called CDK 4/6 inhibitors; palbociclib (Ibrance, which is funded in New Zealand) and…
BCAC is confident that Pharmac’s switch of breast cancer drug Herceptin (trastuzumab) to Herzuma, a biosimilar version, will be safe and effective, but we wonder why it took so long to fund this cheaper alternative. BCAC is also disappointed that access has not been extended to those who need retreatment in advanced breast cancer.
Pharmac…
Jess Coate (Ngapuhi), fitness instructor and bodybuilding pro, organised a hugely successful fun fitness and learning event for BCAC, attended by 80 women in Kirikiriroa Hamilton recently. Jess teamed up with BCAC to raise awareness of the danger breast cancer poses to young women. Watch this awesome video of the event with some vital messages!
Jess’ best friend, BCAC’s…
While drugs given during chemotherapy can help to combat nausea, more than half of patients also suffer from delayed nausea and vomiting. This kicks in after chemo has finished and can last for days. Some oncologists had reported that pantoprazole, a proton pump inhibitor which reduces stomach acid, was helpful for these patients. However, others were not convinced.
A recently completed New Zealand-based clinical trial (called PantoCIN) has provided proof…
