Latest News
BCAC is pushing for breakthrough breast cancer drug, Kadcyla, to be publicly funded in New Zealand after a “monumental u-turn” in the UK which has seen the drug funded there.
UK authorities had refused to fund the medicine, which is used to treat people with advanced HER2- positive breast cancer, because it was too expensive.
But a deal between the pharmaceutical company, Roche, and the UK’s National Health Service has reduced the cost and means the medicine can now be offered in the public health service.
BCAC’s chairperson Libby Burgess is now urging the New Zealand government’s drug-buying agency PHARMAC and Roche to start negotiations about the cost of Kadcyla in this country.
A new study has found that neuropathy or nerve pain brought on by chemotherapy can continue for many years after treatment has finished.
The US study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, followed more than 500 female cancer survivors (75% of whom had been treated for breast cancer).
The researchers found that those women who experienced Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy or CIPN also had worse physical functioning and a significantly higher risk of falls.
A new study shows that the number of women living with advanced breast cancer in the USA is growing and BCAC believes the situation is likely to be the same in New Zealand.
The research, published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, also looked at survival rates for women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), which is breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) researchers say that median and five-year relative survival rate for women initially diagnosed with MBC is improving, especially among younger women.
New research shows that women taking Aromatase Inhibitors (AIs) as part of their breast cancer treatment have a two to four fold increase in bone loss compared to the usual rate associated with menopause.
AIs are often prescribed for women with hormone-receptive breast cancer and work to block the production of oestrogen in post-menopausal women.
The research, published in the Journal of Bone Oncology, has prompted a range of organisations to update their advice to women taking AIs as part of breast cancer treatment to help prevent bone loss and related fractures.
The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) welcomes new funding for the Government’s drug-buying agency, PHARMAC, but warns that it is not enough to make a real difference.
The Government has announced a $60 million increase in funding for PHARMAC over the next four years as part of Vote Health in Budget 2017.
The Pink Dragons dragon boat breast cancer survivors’ team celebrated their 10th Anniversary last year with a special Regatta joined by many other dragon boat teams. All the teams dressed up for the ‘Swashbucklers’ themed afternoon but unfortunately the weather had other ideas about the teams getting out on the water to race!
Busting with Life, along with the Pink Dragons, competed at the World Masters Games in April.
With the World Masters Games right here in their hood it seemed only right and proper that the two Auckland Breast Cancer Survivors Dragon Boat Teams combined forces to take on the world.
Has fitness been on your to do list? Looking to widen your friendships? Are you asking yourself – what does life after breast cancer offer?
Dragon boating in the Busting with Life team could be your answer to all of these questions.
New research has found that random and unpredictable DNA copying “mistakes” are responsible for nearly two-thirds of the mutations that cause cancer.
This means “environmental” influences, such as nutrition and exercise, play less of a role in many cancer cases than previously thought.
New guidelines in the UK recommend that healthy post-menopausal women with a familial risk of developing breast cancer be prescribed the medicine anastrazole in a bid to help ward off the disease.
The recommendation comes from the UK’s drug regulator, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which has just updated its familial breast cancer guidelines.
The Institute already recommends that healthy pre-menopausal women with the BRCA gene mutations be prescribed the hormone therapy, tamoxifen, for at least five years.
