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Trial Design
The PantoCIN trial will test the ability of a cheap, widely available drug to prevent two of chemotherapy’s most unpleasant side-effects: delayed nausea and vomiting.
This study explores whether a commonly used medication called pantoprazole can help prevent delayed nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy for early breast cancer.
Delayed nausea, and occasionally vomiting, can occur after breast cancer chemotherapy, affecting the quality of life. A potential cause of these delayed side effects is that the chemotherapy may cause stomach irritation. Pantoprazole is commonly used to treat stomach irritation by reducing stomach acid, which may, in turn, improve nausea and/or vomiting.
A study comparing annual breast screening to screening personalised according to a woman’s risk was presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
BCAC Secretary Fay Sowerby, who attended the presentation, says she was intrigued by this new trial, WISDOM. Annual screening is standard in the United States, whereas screening takes place every two years for women in NZ.
The trial results to date provide interesting insights for New Zealanders despite this difference, Fay says. “New Zealand may gain benefit from initiating a similar trial so that we may learn more about the challenges those at higher risk may face, and at the same time enable those at lowest risk to be screened less frequently.”
A clinical trial shows that tucatinib, an investigative therapy used in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine, reduces risk of death at two years by one-third in women with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer (HER2+ MBC).
BCAC media release, 15 January 2020: Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) is delighted to hear that Ibrance (palbociclib) will be funded by PHARMAC from 1 April 2020.
“This will be a huge relief for the hundreds of New Zealand women who are struggling to self-fund this medicine,” says BCAC’s Chair, Libby Burgess. “It’s also great that the manufacturer Pfizer will provide Ibrance free of charge from now until April.”
BCAC would love you to show support for an intrepid couple who cycled from Dunedin to Parliament to garner support for a petition that would help improve the lives of women with breast cancer and people with other diseases.
Advocates are always a big part of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, with wonderful opportunities to share ideas, experience, priorities and plans. This photo shows patient advocates together in Texas. The photo is courtesy of the Alamo Breast Cancer Foundation, which we are very pleased sponsored our Deputy Chair Emma Crowley to attend the Symposium. Emma is pictured in the back row in a white Nike T-shirt.
Videos for advocates:
BCAC Secretary Fay Sowerby says a presentation on proteomics was one of the highlights of the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. Tao Liu, from Pacific Western University described advanced enabling technologies for cancer proteomics developed to be efficient and replicable to handle bulk proteomics workflow typically handling 10,000 proteins and greater than 30,000 phosphorites utilising mass spectronomy.
Initial trial results on the cost and effectiveness of MRI breast cancer screening compared to mammography, in women with a familial risk, have been presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. The FaMRIsc study is the first randomised trial that has made this comparison.
By Shoshana Maasland, Te Waha Nui (AUT University). Photo also by Shoshana
Fay Sowerby was already involved in breast cancer research when she was diagnosed with the illness. The secretary of Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition was well-informed and had been having annual mammograms and occasional ultrasounds. She had recently received an all-clear letter advising she wouldn’t need another mammogram for two years. Four months later, though, she felt a lump.
“I was in a [store] changing room at Lululemon and I put my hand on the side of my breast and felt a small lump. I had no doubt when I touched it what it was.”
The San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) is underway in Texas. BCAC has two delegates attending – Deputy Chair Emma Crowley and Secretary Fay Sowerby. They are there to learn the latest developments in breast cancer treatment and research to bring back home to help BCAC support and inform women with breast cancer. It's great to see NZ oncologists Eletha Taylor, Naera Waters and Reuben Broom absorbing the latest clinical trial results to benefit NZ women at SABCS (pictured L-R in the second photo down on the right).
The Symposium brings together people from all over the world with an interest in the latest in breast cancer research, detection and treatment.
