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'Rare cancer' research
The BCNA Policy Team was interested to learn recently about a new online database (Cart-Wheel) that is collecting information to help researchers who are studying rare cancers.
While breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, some types of breast cancers are not very common and so have been added to the list of rare cancers for this database. These include triple negative breast cancers and cancers that are due to a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.
Currently, rare tumours are under-represented in research and this is partly because researchers do not have access to enough cases to undertake large-scale studies. It's important that researchers can access a large number of cases so they can be sure their results are reliable. This helps in the important work to find new ways to treat and prevent different cancers.
If you have, or have had, a triple negative or BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer, you might like to have a look at the Cart-Wheel website and consider registering your details. Your pathology report will indicate what type of breast cancer you were diagnosed with if you are unsure.
BCNA has had a good look at the database and we are happy to promote it to you. There are consent documents for you to complete, and we are assured that any information you provide will be treated confidentially.
There is more information about Cart-Wheel on the BCNA website. You might also like to read BCNA’s Breast cancer pathology fact sheet, as you will probably need a copy of your pathology report to accurately complete details about your cancer on the Cart-Wheel information form.
We’d be interested to hear about your experiences with the website if you do decide to participate. You can email me at policy@bcna.org.au.
Kathy