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 community around you to offer support during this time. Why Breast Cancer Trials' research is so important....
Jun 25, 2025•9 min
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 cancer with a young family. The role that routine and swimming played in helping her cope. The role that ...
Jun 25, 2025•6 min
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 lead up to her shock diagnosis. Balancing breast cancer treatment and motherhood. The importance of h...
Jun 25, 2025•11 min
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 duringradiation therapy to move the heart away from radiation and protect it from damage. This study will explore whether VR coaching and education can help patients learn this technique more effectively. In ...
Jun 11, 2025•11 min
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 changes in her breasts, and after visiting her doctor for a check-up, she was unfortunately diagnosed wi...
Jun 11, 2025•14 min
Beyond the Plate: Rebuilding Healthy Habits After Breast Cancer with Dr Cindy Tan. 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, there is no one intervention that fits all. Maintaining healthy lifestyle activities can be challenging for some, and the reasons for non-adherence vary. In this episode, we sit down with Ci...
Apr 16, 2025•18 min
Revolutionising Radiotherapy: The ORNATE Study and the Future of Breast Cancer Treatment with Dr Gabrielle Metz. 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 Gabrielle Metz from the Royal North Shore Hospital to discuss: What the databas...
Apr 16, 2025•8 min
Understanding Antibody-Drug Conjugates (ADCs) in Metastatic Breast Cancer with Dr Michelle Li. 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 episode, we sit down with Dr Michelle Li from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to discuss: The current landscape of metastatic breast cancer. Th...
Mar 27, 2025•9 min
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. But what if we could safely monitor their health from home? In this episode, we sit down with Dr Victoria Rayson from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to discuss: ePRO remote monitoring The feasibility, benefits, a...
Mar 26, 2025•10 min
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 using respectful and inclusive language in breast cancer care, so that patients can understand and make informed decisions about their treatment.
Mar 19, 2025•9 min
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 might be connected. Unfortunately, after being sent for an ultrasound, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. We spoke with Elissa about her diagnosis, navigating breas...
Feb 10, 2025•14 min
Tamara Dawes is a mum and primary school teacher living in New South Whales, 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 and because of this had been performing frequent self-examinations when she noticed a lump in her breast. She booked in with her GP, who sent her for a mammogram, biopsy and ultrasound and two days later was diagnosed with breast cancer. We spoke with...
Feb 04, 2025•11 min
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 was diagnosed with breast cancer. We spoke with Wendy about her diagnosis, navigating breast cancer, and her participation on the CAMBRIA-2 clinical trial.
Feb 03, 2025•10 min
The Breast Cancer Trials Board of Directors established the Consumer Advisory Panel, also known as CAP, in 1998 because it recognised the value and importance of consumer input to the planning and conduct of clinical trials research. CAP members bring their own unique experience of breast cancer and a true commitment to the clinical trials research process. In this episode, you'll hear from our CAP Chair, Leslie Gilham, as well as three of our members, Merryn Carter, Naveena Nekkalapudi, and Lau...
Jan 24, 2025•19 min
Dr Erica Mayer is the director of clinical research and institute physician at the Breast Oncology Centre, Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, and associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, United States. Dr Mayer's research focuses on the role of novel therapies in the treatment of breast cancer and we spoke with her about improving efficacy in the adjuvant treatment of early ER+ breast cancer.
Jan 15, 2025•12 min
Professor Andrew Tutt is a Consultant Clinical Oncologist in the Breast Cancer Unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. He is also a Professor of Oncology at King's College in London. We spoke to him about biomarkers for hormone therapy resistance and deficiency, and also on targeting the Achilles heel in BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations.
Jan 15, 2025•26 min
Professor Michael Gnant is a Professor of Surgery at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he also serves as President of the Austrian Breast and Colorectal Cancer Study Group. We spoke to him about trends in surgery de-escalation and management of the axilla.
Jan 14, 2025•15 min
Peter Barry is a Consultant Surgeon at the Breast Unit, Royal Marsden in London. He focuses on breast oncoplastic techniques and reconstructive options following cancer surgery, as well as preventative surgery for high-risk women. We spoke with him about selecting patients for volume replacement therapy.
Jan 14, 2025•14 min
Dr Christina Kozul is a Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Accredited General Surgical trainee at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, who aims to subspecialise in Breast Surgery. She is passionate about contributing to breast cancer research to improve outcomes for women with DCIS and breast cancer. We spoke with Dr Kozul about Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, and why the risk of local recurrence might be a concern for some women.
Nov 05, 2024•6 min
Dr Carlos Barrios is a medical oncologist from Brazil. He dedicates himself to breast cancer and clinical research, and coordinates the Latin-American cooperative oncology group in Brazil, which congregates investigators from 16 different countries in the region. His main interest is establishing collaboration between institutions across different countries to further breast cancer research, and we spoke with him about the sequencing of antibody-drug conjugates, and what to do after metastatic b...
Nov 05, 2024•20 min
Rebecca Angus is a Senior Podiatrist with a personal history of breast cancer, being diagnosed with the disease in 2018, at just 33 years old. She is also a member of the Breast Cancer Trials Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP), which provides a patient’s perspective on the development of trials and the conduct of our research program. We spoke to Rebecca about the importance of patients having a voicewhen it comes to their treatment.
Oct 30, 2024•4 min
Dr Nick Zdenkowski is a Medical Oncologist and Medical Advisor with Breast Cancer Trials. He is the Chair of the Breast Cancer Trials Scientific Advisory Committee and works on a broad range of breast cancer research, including shared decision-making, clinical trials, and patient-reported outcomes, particularly around neoadjuvant systemic therapy. We spoke with Dr Zdenkowski about the importance of collaborating with patients, and why their involvement is crucial for the success of a clinical tr...
Oct 17, 2024•11 min
Dr Deme Karikios is a Medical Oncologist and head of the department at Nepean Hospital in Sydney. He has a clinical and research interest in thoracic and gastrointestinal malignancies. Deme also has a research interest in the costs and value of anticancer drugs, decisions about treatment with expensive unsubsidised anticancer drugs, and financial toxicity. We spoke to him about the importance of quality of life outcomes, and looking beyond survival rates when discussing treatment success....
Oct 16, 2024•7 min
Professor Sunil Lakhani is the Chair of the BCT Board of Directors. He is a clinical diagnostic pathologist and also heads a research team comprising scientists and clinicians, ensuring a translational focus to the program. We spoke with him about Ductal Carcinoma in Situ, and how it relates to breast cancer.
Oct 16, 2024•7 min
Dr Sarah Zardawi is an early-career Medical Oncologist who has also trained in Palliative Medicine. She has a private practice in Maitland, NSW, and is a Clinical Fellow at Breast Cancer Trials. Sarah is dedicated to providing compassionate, patient-centered care for patients and their families at all stages of cancer treatment. We spoke with her about the role of telehealth in the conduct of clinical trials research.
Oct 16, 2024•7 min
Associate Professor Amy McCart Reed holds a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Queensland and has undertaken a series of studies investigating the genomic landscape of breast cancer special types. She is passionate about breast cancer clinical research, biobanking, and precision oncology. In addition to her breast cancer research portfolio, she is on the Scientific Advisory Board for Breast Cancer Trials. We spoke with her about lobular prognostic biomarkers and their role in breast...
Oct 08, 2024•5 min
Dr Syapiq Long is an early-career Medical Oncologist. He graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and moved to Australia in 2015 to complete his training in Medical Oncology. He is currently working as a joint Fellow at the Calvary Mater Newcastle and Breast Cancer Trials, and we spoke with him about survivorship and some of the challenges that patients face after completing their treatment.
Oct 04, 2024•12 min
Shavaun Wells is a Senior Fieldwork Officer on the Kulay Kalingka Study, a national cohort study aiming to understand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s beliefs and attitudes about cancer, engagement with cancer screening programs, and experiences with cancer diagnosis, care and treatment, to improve experiences and outcomes. We spoke with her about the importance of this research. For more information about the study please visit: https://nceph.anu.edu.au/research/projects/kulay-kal...
Oct 02, 2024•10 min
Dr Anna Singleton is a Senior Research Fellow at the Daffodil Centre, a joint venture between the University of Sydney and Cancer Council NSW. Her research focuses on co-designing and implementing accessible, and scalable digital health services to improve health outcomes for people living with and beyond cancer. We spoke with her about the EMPOWER-SMS clinical trial and what it aims to achieve for breast cancer patients.
Oct 01, 2024•13 min
Dr Stephen Luen is a Medical Oncologist and translational researcher at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. His current research interests include the study of genomic and immune biomarkers in breast cancer, with a particular focus on investigating biological characteristics and developing clinical trials for high-risk subgroups of patients. We spoke to Dr Luen about the role of genomic testing in breast cancer treatment.
Sep 26, 2024•8 min
