Charity helps NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care) to recommend new treatment for people with TNBC
The UK Charity for Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) would like to thank those of you who joined the Patient Advisory Panel (PAP) during our first phase, enabling us to provide input to a recent re-evaluation of treatments for people with TNBC.
NICE were keen to understand the “trade off” with platinum containing chemotherapy between it working better to treat the cancer but having more side effects and the impact of platinum containing chemotherapy on peoples experience in terms of their ‘quality of life’ and unpleasant and or long-term side effects.
NICE, which recommends which treatments should be offered to people with cancer, acknowledged in their report that stakeholder comments were ‘invaluable’
As a result, NICE published ‘new and updated’ recommendations to oncologists in the UK on the 14th April as follows;
“Where neoadjuvent chemotherapy is indicated for people with triple negative invasive breast cancer, offer a regime that contains a platinum, a taxane and an anthracycline.”
NICE was already aware from clinical trials that the addition of a platinum based drug (such as carboplatin) to other chemotherapy given before surgery, ‘improves overall survival compared to a neoadjuvent chemotherapy regimen without a platinum’ but ‘may mean that the risks of having certain side effects are increased’.
In response to the questionnaire, PAP participants confirmed that to get these preferred outcomes, you would accept that people may get more side effects from that treatment.
As the Charity’s PAP organiser, Katherine Gaylard, who herself has TNBC, commented on the results of the questionnaire, ‘there was a clear preference to prioritise quality of treatment over quality of life’.
The study which you can view below, clearly outlines the feedback you gave us and the recommendation that have been made.
Thank you, your voice is creating change for those who have a TNBC diagnosis or will in the future.