BUY A DIARY THIS OCTOBER

Approximately 1 in 8 women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer by the time they turn 85 and about 42 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each day.

This October, the Breast Cancer Institute of Australia is urging all Australian’s to support research for a world without breast cancer by buying a 2016 Australian Women’s Health Diary. All profits raised through the sale of the diary fund clinical trials research conducted by the Australia and New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group (ANZBCTG) – Australia’s only independent, collaborative breast cancer clinical trials research group.

Clinical trials are the critical step that proves new treatments and prevention strategies are safe and effective before they are made widely available. Support for clinical trials research will help to get new and promising breast cancer treatments to those who need them.

The initial results of an international clinical trial, conducted in Australia by ANZBCTG, have just been released and provide evidence that a genetic test is able to reliably identify which women diagnosed with hormone receptor positive breast cancer could safely avoid chemotherapy. The test gives women a recurrence score which ranges from 0-100, the higher the score, the greater the chance that breast cancer will return.

The analysis involved 1,626 patients in the clinical trial who had a recurrence score of 10 or less and who received hormone treatment alone, without chemotherapy. It found that 99% of women with hormone receptor positive, HER-2 negative, node negative breast cancer were free of recurrence after five years of hormone treatment alone. Outcomes were excellent, irrespective of patient age at diagnosis, tumour size and tumour grade. These results provide women with early stage breast cancer and a low recurrence score, greater certainty that hormone treatment alone is sufficient and they can avoid the side effects of chemotherapy, which provides no additional benefit to their treatment.

This is just one of the 75 clinical trials which have been conducted by ANZBCTG which would not have been possible without funds raised by the Australian Women’s Health Diary.

Lisa Wilkinson, Channel 9 Today Show co-host and diary ambassador said, “I am so proud to support this diary, and your purchase means you’re standing together with me, and with many thousands of Australian women to achieve a future without breast cancer. That’s a special feeling.”

“This wonderful diary will keep you organised and in charge of your busy life, so you can live life to the fullest.”

The 2016 Australian Women’s Health Diary is available now from newsagents, Commonwealth Bank branches, Woolworths and Avon Representatives.

It can also be purchased online at www.bcia.org.au or by calling 1800 423 444.