Written by Paige Tamasi
Every day people learn something new. We discover a new musical artist or a fun little animal. Recently the United Kingdom’s Health Minister and National Health Service have implemented new ways of improving breast cancer treatments.
As the month of September draws to a close and October approaches closer every day, we here at Insanity Radio want to start talking about Breast Cancer early. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and in honour of it being so, we wanted to highlight the recent innovation in breast cancer medicine. This comes from a recent announcement made by the United Kingdom’s Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt.
Nesbitt is employing a new system to help regulate waiting lists. The aim of this initiative is to decrease the amount of time people spend on the waitlist and to increase efficiency by minimizing external crowding. Nesbitt and his team viewed disproportionate lengths between waiting lists in various provinces. Some were extremely and some very short. This new system will help even the waiting list length so that some people are not waiting longer just because of where they live.
For over six years now, the National Health Service (NHS) has been publishing its findings on ways to speed up cancer treatments. With various of their research being implemented, they have also published their advice on how to put their suggestions into action.
The NHS released their most recent findings in March, focusing on speeding the diagnostic process and, hopefully, not overwhelming the available clinics.
The NHS recommends that referrals that have, traditionally, sent low-risk patients away from one-stop clinics instead send those low-risk non-red-flag symptom patients towards the single-stop clinics. These clinics are designed to help diagnose cancer and promote low-risk patients to get examined there, doctors and physicians will be freeing up space in other clinics and hospitals for those who are high-risk and displaying worrying symptoms. The aim, that the NHS outlines, is to improve patient care and best use the one-stop clinics, as previously they were being underutilized.
This isn’t the only recommendation that the NHS has outlined in their most recent publication on faster cancer diagnostics. Recognizing that a diagnosis is not the end of the treatment process, the NHS mentions the inclusion of a ‘tumour receptor status’ that would allow treatment planning earlier in the treatment process.
However, the Health Minister and the NHS are not the only people looking towards improving breast cancer treatment and diagnostics. In the summer of 2024, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) approved a new drug called Capivasertib (also known as Truqap) for treating breast cancer. What Capivasertib does is prevent ATK Kinases proteins from working, thus limiting the spread and multiplication of breast cancer cells. In trials, it was found that Capivasertib works best alongside a hormone treatment typically used for patients with advanced breast cancer (fulvestrant). Capivasertib should hopefully be able to advance breast cancer treatments.
All cancer is a terrible disease that, unfortunately, affects many of the people around us daily. It is through the hard work of doctors, chemists, and various researchers that improvements in the cancer treatment process are achieved.
Here at Insanity Radio, we encourage everyone to do further research on topics that they find important. Here is where we began our research on this important topic:
https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/news/new-initiatives-breast-cancer-services
Written by Paige Tamasi, Edited by Paige Tamasi, Photography by Anna Shvets with permission given through the Pexels License, Published by Paige Tamasi.