Latest News
The Taranaki Dragons have been busy! Valda McBeth has posted this update:
Carol Coad was awarded Life Membership of Taranaki Dragons at our recent AGM. Carol has been an active, reliable and committed member since our Club was founded in 2008. Carol was our treasurer for 14 years.
Taranaki Dragons' annual Pink Walk and Paddle was held in early November. Although we had two boats out, we had to paddle in the basin which adjoins the Waitara River (our normal training venue) as the wind and river current was not safe for dragon boating. However, paddling in the basin meant that trainee sweeps had an opportunity to practice and our "newbies" enjoyed the gentle paddle. Shared (mostly pink) kai was enjoyed after the walk and paddle.
This international trial is looking at whether a new way of delivering lidocaine, a commonly used local anaesthetic drug, will help reduce the occurrence of moderate or severe chronic post-surgical pain for women undergoing breast cancer surgery. Nearly half of women who have breast cancer surgery experience some chronic pain after surgery and there is currently no best way to manage this.
Breast cancer is uncommon in men, but it does happen. About one per cent of all diagnosed cases of breast cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand will be in men, with around 25 men diagnosed each year.
Initial symptoms of breast cancer in men can include:
• a lump or lumpiness around your nipple
• a change in the shape of your nipple or breast area
• bleeding from the nipple
• pain in the nipple or pectoral area
• skin changes such as redness, rash, ulceration, puckering or dimpling
• a lump in your armpit.
One of the biggest challenges in any diagnosis, and treatment journey, is finding positivity during very worrying and difficult times. It’s easy to be afraid and get stuck in a negative spiral.
Being positive and thinking positively can help you cope with cancer, but it is natural to also feel upset and frightened sometimes. People with cancer are often encouraged to be positive. But it’s not always easy. It’s important to acknowledge there will be some very difficult days and allow ourselves to feel and express emotion.
If positivity doesn't feel right for you, or doesn't feel right in a specific situation, or on any given day, that's okay. Acknowledge how you’re feeling, allow it to be, and then think about some actions you might take to feel differently.
This is a Phase II open-label study to assess the efficacy and safety of camizestrant (a next-generation oral selective oestrogen receptor degrader - SERD) compared to standard endocrine therapy (aromatase inhibitor or tamoxifen) for patients with early ER-positive HER2-negative breast cancer and an intermediate-to-high or high risk of recurrence and who have completed definitive locoregional treatment and have no evidence of disease.
New Zealand sites for this trial will be Auckland, Waikato and Palmerston North.
Read more about this trial here.
7 November 2024
ATNEC is a phase III, open, randomised, multicentre trial comparing standard axillary treatment (either, axillary lymph node dissection [ALND] or axillary radiotherapy [ART]) with no axillary treatment post-surgery, in early stage (T1-3N1M0) breast cancer patients.
This is a randomised phase III trial of adjuvant radiation therapy versus observation following breast conserving surgery and endocrine therapy in patients with molecularly characterised luminal A early breast cancer. The purpose of this study is to see whether a specialised laboratory test (Prosigna (PAM50) Assay) of breast cancer tissue can be used to choose women who can safely avoid radiation therapy because there is a low risk of the cancer coming back. New Zealand sites are Waikato Hospital, Christchurch Hospital, Wellington Hospital and Palmerston North Hospital.
