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For the second year running, BCAC has funded a young New Zealand breast cancer survivor to attend the annual C4YW conference for young women with breast cancer.
The conference, hosted by the Young Survival Coalition and Living Beyond Breast Cancer, was held in Orlando, Florida and was attended by Aucklander Emma Crowley, a 26-year-old who has recently finished treatment for breast cancer.
Emma says the conference was an amazing opportunity to meet inspirational women who’ve been through the same thing as she has.
“It was of great value to have access to an abundance of information in one forum; and expressly aimed at young women”
The Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC) recently helped to set up a ‘Metavivors’ group in order to advocate for better treatment and care for women with advanced breast cancer.
BCAC chair, Libby Burgess, says women with secondary breast cancer have specific needs and all too often these are ignored or not prioritised.
“The aim of the Metavivors NZ group is to provide a voice for women with advanced breast cancer in New Zealand in order to raise awareness of their specific needs and to advocate for medicines, treatment options and support to benefit them,” Libby says.
Renewed questions have been raised about the value of mammograms after a Canadian study suggested that it does not reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer.
BCAC chair Libby Burgess says while the latest research is thought-provoking, it should in no way prompt New Zealand women to stop getting their free mammograms every two years through BreastScreen Aotearoa.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, compared Canadian women who had annual mammograms with those who had a physical examination only and concluded that there was no real difference in the number of breast cancer deaths in the two groups.
New research suggests that young women who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes a day have a much higher risk of developing the most common type of breast cancer.
The study, published in the journal Cancer, shows that young women who smoke are 30 per cent more likely to develop oestrogen receptor positive breast cancer, compared with those who have never smoked.
More worryingly, those who are heavy smokers (a pack a day for at least a decade) were 60 per cent more likely to develop this form of breast cancer.
Today is World Cancer Day and BCAC is backing the global campaign to reduce the stigma associated with cancer and dispel myths about it.
Each year around 7.6 million people worldwide die from cancer and World Cancer Day aims to help prevent deaths by raising awareness and improving education about the disease.
BCAC chair, Libby Burgess, says it’s an important day to acknowledge that we can all do something to help prevent cancer by educating others about the disease.
“All too often, people are not aware of the signs and symptoms of cancer, or they’re not aware of screening programmes to help detect the disease or new medicines to help treat the disease.
BCAC is thrilled to see the country’s free breast screening programme, BreastScreen Aotearoa, is now fully digital.
The move was announced by the Associate Minister of Health, Jo Goodhew, today, who said it was a “significant milestone in the Government’s commitment to improved technology and access to high quality breast screening services”.
BCAC chairperson, Libby Burgess, says the move from x-ray film to digital images it is a big step forward.
A new report highlights the need for clinicians to be more willing to treat older women with breast cancer with chemotherapy to ensure they experience the best possible health outcomes.
The “Breast Cancer in the Elderly” report published in the journal, Future Oncology, says elderly patients are often not treated with chemotherapy or are treated less aggressively.
BCAC chair, Libby Burgess, says anecdotally BCAC is aware of healthy elderly women who have not received the same level of care as their younger counterparts.
The coming year will be a challenging one for breast cancer physicians and researchers as new figures show that the number of breast cancer cases worldwide is on the rise.
The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) recently released the latest global statistics on cancer incidence, mortality and prevalence.
It shows that the number of cancer cases worldwide rose to 14.1 million in 2012 and highlights a dramatic increase in breast cancer cases.
BCAC is calling for breast cancer survivors to put themselves forward as candidates for membership of the Health Quality & Safety Commission’s Consumer Network to help improve health and disability care in New Zealand.
The Commission is the government agency charged with ensuring that all New Zealanders receive the best health and disability care within available resources.
It has a dedicated Consumer Network as part of its commitment to consumers being actively involved in decision-making about health and disability services, including governance, planning and policy development.
BCAC chair, Libby Burgess, says consumers have a valuable contribution to make to any efforts to improve the health system.
The new dragon boat paddling season kicked off early in November and the Pink Dragons are all set for some hard training ahead. Some kept up their paddling enthusiasm throughout the winter with Sunday training whilst others kept up their fitness in other ways and took a well earned break from paddling.
Last season ended on a high with the ‘Pinkies’ winning a much prized gold medal and several other medals at the Regional Championships and Nationals. Some of the team also volunteered to collect for Pink Ribbon collection day in October, an event they are always happy to support.
