Latest News
Join fertility expert Mary Birdsall at the BCAC Annual General Meeting on November 16 2012 for a rundown on the latest in fertility options for young women with cancer.
Dr Birdsall is the Medical Director of Fertility Associates, and will update us on this fast-moving area of medical technology, including options for freezing eggs, embryos and ovarian tissue.
New research from the Netherlands shows that the switch from screen film mammography (SFM) to digital mammography (DM) in large, population-based breast cancer screening programs improves the detection of life-threatening cancer without significantly increasing detection of clinically insignificant disease.
Results of the study are published online in the journal Radiology.
Digital Mammography's higher sensitivity at detecting breast cancer raised concerns that its introduction into screening programs would increase the diagnosis of clinically unimportant cancers—cancers that, if left undetected and therefore untreated, would never have surfaced clinically in the person's lifetime.
Treatment for breast cancer can be a harrowing experience for some and many women find complementary therapies can help them to survive the physical and mental challenges of treatment.
Complementary therapies include activities such as massage, meditation, acupuncture, and aromatherapy. They are not a substitute for conventional medicine, but can sometimes help women to cope better with treatment, both physically and emotionally.
Trish Melville is the Clinical Services Manager at Auckland’s dove house, which offers a range of holistic and complementary therapies for those with secondary cancer and those currently undergoing treatment for primary cancer.
Member group Breast Cancer Network warmly welcome all to attend their upcoming AGM to be held at:
Domain Lodge, Cancer Society, 1 Boyle Crescent, Grafton, Auckland on Saturday 11th May at 10.00am.
Presenting their exciting speaker Anne Thorp who is host of popular cooking show Kai Ora!
For further information, please see: http://www.bcn.org.nz/
BCAC recently met with MPs from across the political spectrum to deliver a strong message about measures needed to improve breast cancer care in New Zealand.
The BCAC team met with the Minister of Health, Hon. Tony Ryall, Associate Health Minister Jo Goodhew and Health Select committee member Dr Jackie Blue, as well as the Labour and Green Health spokespeople, the Hon. Maryan Street and Hon. Kevin Hague.
BCAC chair Libby Burgess says they had a positive meeting with the Minister of Health and his team. Mr Ryall was responsive to the messages BCAC conveyed and expressed a desire to do more to improve the delivery of cancer services.
The Breast Cancer Support (BCS) 'Young Women's Focus Group'
Member group Breast Cancer Support recently held a discussion group to help provide targeted and appropriate support services for younger women experiencing breast cancer.
BCS Young Women's Support Group is growing ... The Breast Cancer Support Young Women's group has been officially established! Six young women along with BSC Chair Misha Crosbie attended the March meeting. Nicky Foreman and Rosemary Geard are the Group's Co-ordinators and for the time being, Misha will continue in a mentor role.
It’s been a busy season for the Pink Dragons team and ending on a high with us finally winning a gold medal at this year’s National Championships at Blue Lake Rotorua. A number of new paddlers joined us throughout the season with a couple joining only weeks before Regionals and Nationals! Without all our new members we would not have been able to achieve our success this season. Our success is not only measured by the medals won but by the friendship and support given to those new paddlers, often only having just completed their treatment and trying to pick up their lives once again.
New research shows that a 12-month treatment programme of Herceptin is still the best option for women with HER2-positive breast cancer, according to the Breast Cancer Aotearoa Coalition (BCAC).
The latest data from two large clinical trials investigating Herceptin (trastuzumab) was presented at the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in Vienna, Austria overnight.
The French PHARE trial compared a six-month Herceptin treatment programme with 12 months, while the HERA trial compared 12 months with 24 months.
The results of the PHARE trial were inconclusive, but its principal researcher, Professor Xavier Pivot said “there is a trend in favour of 12 months treatment for the overall population”.
Psychologist Dr Geraldine Meechan takes us through the different emotional phases of breast cancer treatment and recovery and provides tips on how to manage the stress and anxiety.
BCAC is excited to see new results from a clinical trial which show that women diagnosed with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer lived longer when they received the experimental medicine T-DM1 (trastuzumab emtansine).
The results come out of the phase III EMILIA study which involves more than 990 women diagnosed with metastatic or advanced HER2–positive breast cancer who had stopped responding to standard treatments.
