Data collected from about 250 breast cancer patients in Otago and Southland is now being added to the Breast Cancer Foundation National Register, which aims to revolutionise the understanding of breast cancer care in the regions and throughout New Zealand. 

The national register was launched in 2000 and has collected information about more than 38,000 past and present patients across New Zealand.

For the first 10 years of the register, four regional databases were established in Auckland, Waikato, Wellington and Christchurch.

Those registers were consolidated in 2018 and last year the register was expanded to the entire country.

Advertisement: Ezi Computing

Advertise on the Southland App

All 20 district health boards have now joined the national database, providing data backdated to January 2020.

The foundation has now begun the process of adding the clinical data for around 250 Otago and Southland patients, and this project should be completed by June this year, Breast Cancer Foundation communications manager Pui-Yi Cheng said today (Thursday March 4).

The register helps to ensure all breast cancer patients, regardless of ethnicity or geographical location, receive the same high standard of care and advances in treatment, the foundation said in a media release this week. 

Around 235 people are diagnosed with breast cancer in the Southern DHB area every year, and around 45 will die from it, the foundation said.

Southland Hospital consultant general and breast surgeon Dr Paul Samson said patients around the region would benefit from being part of the register.

“[It] will allow us to see regional-specific information about breast cancer diagnoses, treatment and outcomes. Before joining the register, we had this data but it was inconsistently collected. 

“Having this up-to-date and comprehensive data means we’ll be able to ensure ongoing quality improvements for our patients – regardless of their ethnicity and where they live. It will help us to understand patients’ treatment choices, as well as to make more accurate predictions of treatment outcomes,” Dr Samson said.

The database collects information such as demographics, diagnosis, follow-up and treatment. Around 3,300 new patients are added to the register each year. 

National register manager Sue Kleinsman says the data helps push new frontiers in research. PHOTO: Supplied

National register manager Sue Kleinsman said now that all district health boards had joined the register, a full picture of breast cancer patients across the country would emerge.

“Since the register was launched in 2000, more than 30 scientific studies on breast cancer have been published using its data. It’s helping us to continually expand our knowledge and push new frontiers in research,” Ms Kleinsman said. 

One researcher is Dr Sandar Tin Tin, who is has been investigating how to improve equality in breast cancer care for Maori and Pacific women, and women living in some deprived or remote areas. 

Dr Tin Tin’s study aims to map the problem areas using data from the Breast Cancer Foundation National Register and Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure. 

The study will look at how breast cancer is diagnosed and treated in different regions, and patients’ survival.

For more information on studies using national register data look HERE. 

The Breast Cancer Foundation NZ is a not-for-profit, non-government organisation and has provided more than $2.5 million to the development and management of the national register.

To support the national register with a donation go HERE.