Spotlight on Secondary Breast Cancer
Three aims to improve care
Our Spotlight on Secondary Breast Cancer campaign has developed from the Secondary Breast Cancer Taskforce. This was a two-year initiative set up in 2006 by Breast Cancer Care. It recognised that people with secondary breast cancer were not receiving the best possible standard of care. Its recommendations formed the basis of our Spotlight on Secondary Breast Cancer influencing campaign.
- We want adequate data to be collected on the number of people with secondary breast cancer across the UK – guessing is not good enough.
- We want cancer networks to agree to work towards our Standards of Care for people with secondary breast cancer.
- We want healthcare professionals to get enough training and support so that they can meet the needs of their patients who are living with secondary breast cancer.
Standards of Care for people with secondary breast cancer
The Standards of Care for people with secondary breast cancer have been developed by Breast Cancer Care with the help of healthcare professionals and women with secondary breast cancer. The standards outline 10 key components of high-quality care that we believe people with secondary breast cancer should receive.
We are requesting Cancer Networks throughout the country to sign up to work towards implementing the Standards of Care for people with secondary breast cancer. Currently, there are around 30 Cancer Networks whose role it is to co-ordinate and oversee the delivery of good-quality cancer care.
Our hope is that by encouraging Cancer Networks to sign up to the Standards of Care we will take an important step towards ensuring that every person with secondary breast cancer receives high standards of care.
We are delighted that eight Cancer Networks have signed up to support the Standard. They are: Anglia, Arden, Avon, Somerset and Wiltshire, Merseyside and Cheshire, North of England, South East London, Surrey, West Sussex and Hampshire and Yorkshire. Read this year’s Annual Review of the campaign see what these Cancer Networks have been doing to improve the care they offer people with secondary breast cancer in their network.
Our three priority areas in the Standards of Care for people with secondary breast cancer are:
- adequate data collection on the incidence of Secondary Breast Cancer
- specialist nurses for people with secondary breast cancer
- continuity of care between hospital and community services.
