Breast Cancer Trials

Could Patients with Breast Cancer Safely Skip Radiation & the Potential Side Effects? Inside the ROSALIE Clinical Trial Could skipping radiation after breast-conserving surgery be safe for some patients? The ROSALIE trial is exploring this possibility. In this episode, we sit down with Professor Boon Chua, Radiation Oncologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, who...

Neoadjuvant Now: What's Next in Pre-Surgical Breast Cancer Treatment? More and more breast cancer patients are now receiving treatment before surgery - but what’s next for this approach? In this episode, we look at how neoadjuvant therapy is changing, the new treatments being tested, and what it could mean for patients in the future. Hear from the Head of the International Breast Cancer Centre...

Next Gen Oncology: Insights for Trainees and Early-Career Clinicians Are you a trainee or early career professional in oncology looking to connect, learn, and grow? In this episode, we highlight the Trainee and Early Career Day at the Breast Cancer Trials Annual Scientific Meeting. A unique opportunity to network with peers, gain insights from leading researchers, and kickstart your professional d...

Caring for the Caregivers: Preventing Burnout in Oncology What happens when the people caring for everyone else are running on empty? In this episode, we sit down with London-based Professor of psycho-oncology, Dame Lesley Fallowfield, to explore burnout, practical self-care strategies, and ways we can better support healthcare workers before exhaustion takes its toll. (5:22) Some of the key warni...

Intimacy and Insight: Sexual Health After Breast Cancer Sexual health after breast cancer is a topic too often left in the shadows - yet it profoundly affects quality of life both during and post-diagnosis. In this episode, Dr Belinda Yeo and Dr Virginia Baird open the conversation, sharing insights into how we can better support patients navigating intimacy, identity, and well-being after breast...

Choosing Your Path & Navigating Difficult Treatment Decisions What happens when patients say ‘no’ to recommended treatments? The search for alternatives can be confronting for both patients and clinicians. Associate Professor Lesley Stafford explores why some patients take this path, what it means for their outcomes, and how the medical community can better navigate these difficult conversatio...

Lotjpa Yapaneyepuk (Talk Together): Bridging Communities and Cancer Research  Access to clinical trials isn't equal, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Regional Victoria, barriers in accessing treatment for breast cancer remain. Dr Monica Green and Ms Leah Lindrea-Morrison share an initiative that's breaking down those barriers by talking together, listening deeply, a...

4CASTING the Future: Innovations in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Triple negative breast cancer remains one of the most challenging types to treat because it lacks the common treatment targets, grows and spreads aggressively, is highly diverse and currently has limited effective therapies - but new research is changing the story.   Associate Professor Rachel Dear takes us inside the 4CAST trial, s...

Listen to Your Heart: Cardiac Care After Breast Cancer Breast cancer treatments save lives, but sometimes it can leave the heart at risk. Professor Thomas Marwick sheds light on cardiac care for breast cancer survivors, exploring how monitoring and management strategies can protect heart health long after treatment ends. In this episode, we sit down with Thomas to discuss: (01:09) The common cardi...

Facing the Fear: Life After Breast Cancer For many breast cancer survivors, finishing treatment isn't the end of the journey - it's the beginning of new fears. Fear of recurrence is one of the most common and distressing challenges patients face. In this episode, Associate Professor Ben Smith unpacks why these fears occur, how they affect daily life, and what strategies can help patients m...

Screening Smarter: Personalised Approaches in Breast Care Is it time to rethink a ‘one size fits all’ approach to breast screening? Associate Professor Sanjay Warrier joins us to discuss the future of tailored breast screening, a personalised approach that could revolutionise how we detect breast cancer earlier and more effectively. In this episode, we sit down with Professor Warrier to discuss: (...

Advancing Care for Young Women with Breast Cancer Young women with breast cancer often face unique challenges beyond their diagnosis, including long-term survivorship issues, fertility and family planning concerns, and a higher likelihood of aggressive cancers. But are their treatment pathways keeping up? Dr Belinda Kiely explains the ground-breaking OPTIMA-Young trial, part of the larger PATH-for...

Holding It Together: Breast Cancer and the Busy Mum Life When you’re a mum of two young boys, life is full of chaos, and for Belinda, it also became a time of deep uncertainty when, in 2019, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. In this episode, we sit down with Belinda to discuss: Navigating a breast cancer diagnosis while raising a young family. The importance of having a communi...

Routine, Resilience, and Research: One Mum's Cancer Story What happens when your life plans are suddenly redrawn by a breast cancer diagnosis? Emily, her husband, and their two children had moved to Australia in 2012 from the UK and was busy building a future for her family when she found herself on a very different path. In this episode, we sit down with Emily to discuss: Navigating breast ca...

The Village Effect: Why Community Matters During Cancer Treatment For Sarah, motherhood was already a full-time job — between nippers, football, and everything in between. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, she found herself navigating treatment while parenting young children and holding her family together through the uncertainty. In this episode, we sit down with Sarah to discuss: The le...

Virtual Reality Meets Radiation: A New Era in Patient Coaching Kathleene Dower is a Radiation Therapist and 2025 Clinical Fellow with Breast Cancer Trials. Her project is about piloting virtual reality (VR) coaching and education for deep inspiration breath hold, a breathing technique used during radiation therapy to move the heart away from radiation and protect it from damage. This study will ex...

From IVF to Breast Cancer: Navigating a Diagnosis in Early Motherhood Rebecca Pickering is a devoted mum to Daphne and Dorothy and wife to Matt. She loves spending quality time with her family and exploring the beauty of her hometown, Mildura. Rebecca’s journey to motherhood included a series of IVF treatments before welcoming her two daughters. Not long after their birth, she began noticing chang...

Beyond the Plate: Rebuilding Healthy Habits After Breast Cancer Lifestyle interventions such as diet and exercise have been shown to have positive impacts on clinical outcomes, including tolerance to chemotherapy, fatigue, weight maintenance, and reduced risk of cancer recurrence. However, no one intervention fits all. Maintaining healthy lifestyle activities can be challenging for some, and the r...

Revolutionising Radiotherapy: The ORNATE Study and the Future of Breast Cancer Treatment Dr Metz is a radiation oncologist and 2025 clinical fellow with Breast Cancer Trials. Her project, optimising radiotherapy in the neoadjuvant therapy era, also known as ORNATE, aims to refine radiotherapy for breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy before surgery. In this episode, we sit down with Dr Gab...

Understanding Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) in Metastatic Breast Cancer: Breakthroughs, Challenges, and the Future of Targeted Therapy ADCs are a breakthrough in targeted chemotherapy for metastatic breast cancer. While ADCs like trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd) offer new hope, challenges like resistance and various side effects still remain, and can therefore limit their clinical use. In this epi...

Beyond the Clinic: How ePRO is Revolutionising Metastatic Breast Cancer Care While Saving Patients Time & Money Electronic Patient-Reported Outcome (ePRO) remote monitoring is a game-changer for people living with metastatic breast cancer. Many patients on treatments like CDK4/6 inhibitors and anti-HER2 therapies remain stable for long periods, yet they still have to attend frequent check-ups....

Why Language Matters: Using Respectful Terms in Breast Cancer Care Professor Fran Boyle is a highly experienced Medical Oncologist who specialises in the areas of breast cancer and melanoma. She is passionate about making advances in this field, and her practice focuses on researching new treatments as well as developing care and communication. We spoke with Professor Boyle about the importance of...

Science and Hope: How Research is Changing Breast Cancer Treatment Elissa Simms is a mum of two daughters, 20-year-old Bryn and 17-year-old Ella, who enjoys spending time with her family and walking her dogs Kahlua and Lottie. In March 2024, Elissa noticed a strange sensation in her breast. At the time, she was seeing her GP frequently as she was dealing with a frozen shoulder and thought the two...

Receiving a Shock Diagnosis: The Importance of Supporting Clinical Trials Research Tamara Dawes is a mum and primary school teacher living in NSW, who enjoys living in the country, going to the beach, and spending time with her family and their dog. Around Easter time in 2021, Tamara had been dealing with some eczema. Because of this, she had been performing frequent self-examinations, and noticed...

Navigating Breast Cancer: A Patient's Perspective of the CAMBRIA-2 Clinical Trial Wendy Rolls is a wife and mum of three daughters from New South Whales, Australia who enjoys golf, quilting, scrapbooking, and spending time with her family. In October 2023, Wendy found a small lump in her breast, and after undergoing a number of tests including an ultrasound, needle biopsy, and core biopsy she...