The Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register: the first year
Valerie Davey, Bridget Robinson, Birgit Dijkstra, Gavin Harris
Established in 2009, Christchurch Breast Cancer Patient Register is the only breast cancer register in the South Island that was approved by the regional ethics committees to collect data from patients who had given prior consent. In its first year, the Register had a high recruitment rate of 337 patients which was 94% of eligible patients. Overall, 86% of patients had invasive breast carcinoma, and 14% pre-cancer, or
cin situ
d cancer. For those with invasive cancers, mastectomy (removal of the breast) was carried out in 47% and removal of the lump with radiation in 45%. Sentinel node biopsy, whereby the first lymph node draining from the breast is removed for evaluation, without full axillary surgery was undertaken in 73% of patients, which is hoped to reduce later side effects.