Bust a Move: Supporting Breast Cancer Research in B.C.

Scott here with a quick post to remind everyone of the BC Cancer Foundation’s upcoming event on April 13: Bust a Move raises funds for breast cancer research in B.C. and one component of breast cancer research that forms the backbone for a lot of the great research we do is the Breast Cancer Outcome Unit (BCOU). The chair of the BC Cancer Agency’s Breast Tumour Group, Dr. Stephen Chia, has called the BCOU the Jewel in the Crown of the Breast Tumour Group.

The BCOU is a group of researchers that are involved in a wide variety of research projects related to the care and outcomes of patients with breast cancer in B.C. which harness a large amount of data in the BC Cancer Agency records. This group was founded in 1994 by Dr. Ivo Olivotto, has an international reputation and has resulted in over 100 publications related to outcomes of breast cancer patients in B.C. The most important thing about it, is that it provides us with a wealth of information on how patients with breast cancer are doing, what sort of cancers they develop, how they are treated and, most of all, how we can make things better. Through BCOU studies we have validated results of clinical trials and prognostic models, and developed policy for how best to treat patients in the province. It also provides a backbone of treatment and outcome information to which cancer biology findings can be linked. I am the current chair of the BCOU and much of my own research involves work with this unit.

If you would like to support the BCOU and other great breast cancer research initiatives in B.C., check out my Bust a Move site. Myself, and many other oncologists at the BC Cancer Agency, with our fearless leader Dr. Tamara Shenkier, have formed the Luminal A-Team, which is an not only an allusion to our interest in 1980s action TV shows, but also refers to a common type of breast cancer, amongst others, we would like to defeat!

Thanks for listening . . . okay reading,

Scott