Breast Cancer
Group Leader:
A/Professor Richard West AM
2006/2007 Highlights
The Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation is the fundraising arm of the Sydney Breast Cancer Institute. The Foundation has raised a record $600,000 during the year.
Lynne Crookes, past-President of the SBCF, was awarded an Order of the Medal of Australia in the 2006 Queen’s Birthday list. It is a great privilege to work with such a caring, compassionate and dynamic individual at the helm of our fundraising and support arm. The SBCI thank Lynne for all her hard work and congratulate her on a much deserved award.
Danielle Walley stepped down as President at the end of 2006 at the close of a very energetic and successful year. Dani’s strong leadership and commitment to the Foundation are noteworthy. Nowhere was this more evident than with the development of the highly successful, new-look, Pink Ribbon Luncheon. We were particularly pleased to have our Patron, Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir, Governor of New South Wales give a very informative and well researched speech.
Kay Francis worked hard throughout the year. She produced excellent fundraising results particularly in the areas of special interest groups, and also with the revamped and successful Pink Ribbon Luncheon organised with Danielle Walley.
Our Rugby Long Lunch once again was a great success raising $250,000 which will assist in the purchase of a Digital Mammography machine which is of great benefit to women having biopsies. This was organised by Deborah West and the success was due to her ongoing hard work and dedication. She was ably assisted by her hard working committee. We look forward to many more successful Rugby Long Lunches and especially the cooperation of the rugby community.
The Spring into Life Fashion Parade organised by our breast care nurse, Robyn Wicks. This was particularly useful for patients who had previously had breast cancer.
The Pink Ribbon Ball, organised by Pam Hance, was another excellent event, probably the best Ball we have ever had. It was enjoyed by all who attended and particularly attracts a young group of people. The event was co-compered by Angela Bishop and we thank her for her continuing contribution to this event.
Harriett Harrison is invaluable in her role as treasurer and continues her dedicated volunteer work at the Breast Clinic each week.
Our senior Breast Care Nurse, Robyn Wicks, has continued to make the journey through the treatment of breast cancer much easier for our patients. In May we made welcome our second Breast Care Nurse, Kate Orme RN, and this has allowed us to provide an extra day of much needed support to our patients.
The Institute is currently involved in research trials to:
Assess the role of sentinel node biopsy in the management of breast cancer
Investigate the use of aromatase inhibitors as a chemo-prevention strategy for post-menopausal women
Investigate the impact of aromatase inhibitors on bone mineral density and the risk of developing osteoporosis and fractures in post-menopausal women
Identify the set of genes that will indicate the risk of developing oestrogen-positive or oestrogen-negative breast cancer.
The Foundation is contributing towards the purchase of two digital mammogram machines to enable digitalisation of the mammographic services for the RPAH BreastScreen program and the Breast Clinic. The total cost is $2 million, of which we are contributing $240,000. The remainder of the cost is being funded by RPAH Radiology Department and BreastScreen NSW. The direct benefit to women will be speedier mammograms and reduced call back rates. The Foundation is also purchasing a breast coil for the MRI machine at Concord Hospital, at a cost of $58,000. This will enable us to perform MRIs on patients, particularly young patients and those in a genetic high-risk group. The equipment will also enable us to biopsy abnormalities found using the attachments to this coil.
Dr Sue Pendlebury represented the Institute at the International Breast Conference in San Antonio. Dr Niamh Murphy successfully completed her research project as the inaugural Fellow in Cross Translational Breast Cancer research. Dr Jane Beith will be supervising the clinical research work of our second Research Fellow, Dr Ramya Vankateswaran.
The Institute continues to thrive with an increasing clinical load. We have taken delivery of the new Faxitron x-ray machine for use in the operating theatre. This is making our operations more accurate and reducing the times of surgery.
We have also purchased a Bioimpedence machine for the Breast Care Nurses to assess lymphoedema.
