Rural and regional representation in national breast cancer registry
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Grampians Health's Dr Vanessa Wong, in conjunction with the breast cancer team from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), is contributing to the creation of a breast cancer registry, named ARORA.
The registry aims to capture more information about the disease to further research in this area.
Dr Wong, an oncologist working with breast cancer patients, is hopeful that this registry can help give Australian breast cancer research a boost.
“I hope that this registry will help us understand treatment and delivery of routine care for Australian patients with advanced hormone receptor positive breast cancer,” Dr Wong said.
The registry aims to capture 300 patients from 10-15 metropolitan, regional, private and public sites around Australia, with Grampians Health being one of those sites.
“As the registry includes patients from metropolitan, regional, public and private sites, it will be a good representation of all the types of treatments that are available, and also how clinicians select between the treatment options for their patients,” said Dr Wong.
This database will describe real-world presentation and treatment in patients with newly or recently diagnosed hormone receptor positive (HR+), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 negative (HER2-) advance breast cancer in Australia.
The ARORA registry will give cancer researchers the opportunity to understand the different types of treatment sequencing, average duration of different treatments, rationale for changes in treatment, and enrolment in clinical trials. This collection of data will be invaluable to breast cancer researchers.
“The management of advanced hormone receptor positive breast cancer has had exponential development over the last decade, with many new targeted medicines now available in Australia. Given the large number of therapeutic options available, one of the biggest challenges is how best to optimise sequencing of these agents. A registry capturing data on the presentation, treatment and cancer journey for patients would provide valuable information to help clinicians further personalise their treatment options for each patient,” Dr Wong said.