Giving hope to those affected
by secondary breast cancer
Research. Support. Education.
Giving hope to those affected
by secondary breast cancer
23rd February 2023 by Alexander Kolliari-Turner
The Northern Ireland Cancer Registry at Queen's University Belfast will conduct this study after receiving funding from the charity Cancer Focus NI. This is the first study of its kind and by gathering information on the number of patients living with secondary breast cancer in NI it will help with the future planning of services that can support the needs of patients.
Reporting for the BBC, Catherine Smyth writes that Julie Anne Lillis, who is a secondary breast cancer patient, has been campaigning for an audit for some time alongside other patients and supporters. Julie Anne noted that this work would be “ground-breaking” and could lead to real change for secondary breast cancer patients.
A recent estimate for England is that for 2020-2021 there were 57,215 patients living with secondary breast cancer. The findings of this study showed that the number of secondary breast cancer patients has increased steadily and risen from 38,350 patients in 2016-2017.
An NHS funded National Metastatic Breast Cancer Audit is planned for England and Wales. This will help support the NHS to design and plan patient services in an informed way. In March 2023 the Scottish Cancer Strategy will be published and this now presents a crucial opportunity for the Scottish Government to commit to a secondary breast cancer audit to enable audits to happen across the whole of the UK.
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