Cancerkin's News Update.....
Cancerkin annual lecture: ‘The Elephant in the Room’
Cancerkin’s annual lecture will be given this year by Professor Jonathan Waxman, MD FRCP Professor of Oncology and Consultant Physician at Imperial College London, in the Atrium at the Royal Free Hospital on Tuesday 27 March 2012. The lecture is being held this year in celebration of our 25th anniversary.Professor Waxman is a clinician who has helped develop new treatments for cancer that are now part of standard practice. He is the founder and Life President of The Prostate Cancer Charity, and has published a huge number of research papers, chapters and books on cancer, as well as a novel and a law book. He is also a prominent campaigner and fundraiser for work into cancer research and care.
His lecture will be based around his new book 'The Elephant in the Room', a collection of stories about cancer patients and their doctors, which provides an insight into how cancer is cared for. The lecture will begin at 6.30pm. If you would like to attend, please contact Laura on l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk.
Volunteering opportunities
We are still recruiting volunteers to help over the next few weeks with envelope stuffing for our upcoming events. If you have some spare time and would like to help out, please do get in touch. As ever, lots of tea and biscuits will be provided. Please contact Laura on l.smith@cancerkin.org.uk.
Welcome to new art therapist
This month we welcome Catarina Vasconcelos, an Art Psychotherapy trainee at the University of Roehampton, to the Cancerkin team. Catarina will be holding individual and group sessions of Art Therapy, which aim to effect change and growth on a personal level through the use of art materials in a safe and facilitating environment. She has a Masters in Clinical Psychology and has worked as a psychologist in private practice with adults and facilitated group workshops focused on creative expression with children.
The group session will take place on Wednesdays from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, and individual Sessions will be on Thursdays from 11:30 am to 12:30pm and 3:30pm to 4:30pm. You do not need to have previous experience or skill in art. If you are interested in taking part, please contact Una on u.reynolds@cancerkin.org.uk.
In the News.....
HRT and breast cancer risk
A story has appeared in the press this week questioning the link between hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer risk. Researchers at the University of Cape Town, South Africa and at UK universities including University of Surrey and Imperial College London have reanalysed three major studies conducted over the past two decades that claimed HRT increased the risk of developing breast cancer. The original research suggested that women who took HRT were twice as likely to get breast cancer and were more likely to die, causing a huge loss of confidence in the treatment and the number of users to fall by half. New analysis of the research suggests that the studies do not in fact prove that HRT causes breast cancer.
There are three studies in question: the 1997 Collaborative Reanalysis, which pooled data of 51 studies examining HRT and breast cancer risk; the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative, two randomised controlled trials in which women were assigned either HRT treatment or a placebo; and the 2003 Million Women Study, a prospective cohort study which followed over a million UK women over the age of 50 from the point when they were invited for breast screening between 1996 and 2001. Each study concluded that HRT increased breast cancer risk.
Researchers lead by Professor Samuel Shapiro of the University of Cape Town Medical School, have since examined whether each study meets a list of nine criteria required to demonstrate causality i.e. that HRT causes breast cancer. These include factors such as time order (whether women developed breast cancer after they had HRT), information bias (whether anxiety about the possibility HRT could cause breast cancer could influence women’s responses) and confounding (whether those who took HRT were affected by any other factors influencing breast cancer risk). They found that all three failed to adequately fulfil the majority of the causality criteria. From this, they concluded that HRT may or may not increase the risk of breast cancer but that none of the three studies is able to establish that it does. Further studies are required to determine this.
Cancer Research UK, who helped fund the Million Women Study, has defended the original findings of the study, stating that numerous analyses of the results have concluded that HRT does cause breast cancer and that around 20 further independent studies have also reached the same verdict. It also highlighted that the authors of this latest critique all act or have acted as consultants for pharmaceutical companies that make HRT.
To read more about the story, please click here or here.
Laura Smith 20th January 2012
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