News
UK launches project to improve diversity in breast cancer trials
Data from across the UK show women from an ethnic minority background are poorly underrepresented in clinical trials
The UK’s NHS Race and Health Observatory has announced a new pilot project to increase the number of black, Asian and ethnic minority patients taking part in breast cancer clinical trials.
Launched in partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support and supported by pharmaceutical giant Roche, the campaign aims to improve health equity in breast cancer clinical trial representation by raising awareness, improving communications and providing longer-term support to patients.
The project is hoped to design new ways for people with breast cancer to access clinical trials and better information processes.
It will involve recruitment of two specialist nurses – one at The Christie and one at Bart’s Health – employed to give patients one-on-one support throughout the process.
As part of the collaboration, the Caribbean African Health Network will lead on engaging breast cancer service users in the wider community, beyond clinical settings.
There are multiple barriers around recruitment, communication and retention of black, Asian and ethnic minority patients in clinical trials.
The NHS Race and Health Observatory said historically, data from across the UK show people from an ethnic minority background are poorly underrepresented in many clinical trials.
Current research from the UK Health Security Agency and Breast Cancer.Org show that when it comes to breast cancer, young black women in particular have more aggressive tumour profiles, present with later stages of disease, have higher mortality rates, and experience poorer cancer care, further strengthening the rationale to increase participation from these groups in clinical trials.
“Across the Black community there is an undoubted legacy of disengagement in research and most certainly clinical trials that stems back decades as a result of mistrust,” said Charles Kwaku-Odoi, chief executive of the Caribbean African Health Network.
This has not served us well because it leads to a lack of appropriate interventions that perpetuate the grave health inequalities in breast cancer care.
“This partnership approach to build solutions to improve engagement in clinical trials in breast cancer treatment and care is very much welcomed.
“We are looking forward to working in a collaborative way to build trust, improve awareness and ensure that barriers surrounding access to clinical trials are addressed.”
‘White person’s disease’
Dr Habib Naqvi, chief executive of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, said: “There is a broad misperception that black women don’t suffer as much from breast cancer or it does not run in their family history.
“This can result in the perception that cancer is a white person’s disease. We want this pilot to encourage women at risk, those already diagnosed and individuals undergoing post treatment to come forward and share their experiences and get the information needed.”
He added: “We believe that when targeted, culturally sensitive interventions and communications are put in place, underrepresented groups can be successfully recruited into clinical trials.
“There is no ‘hard to reach’ community when it comes to addressing potentially fatal health conditions.”
Professor Richard Simcock, chief medical officer at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “As a breast cancer oncologist, I want to know that research is relevant to the people we see in clinic. Historically that has not been the case.
“I’m delighted that Macmillan can support this project to ensure that future evidence from clinical trials is representative and inclusive.”
Richard Erwin, general manager at Roche Products, added: “The recruitment of people from minority ethnic groups is a pressing concern for researchers and the research community.
“Roche is committed to overcoming these disparities and addressing barriers to clinical trial participation across all patients and groups.
“Programmes such as this one are vital in helping us enhance the future designs of our clinical trials and ensure greater inclusion and better patient access to all of our clinical trials.”
An early PET scan after one cycle of chemotherapy may help predict how aggressive breast cancer responds to treatment, a study suggests.
Research led by The Institute of Cancer Research, London and King’s College London suggests that an early scan taken after one cycle of chemotherapy could help predict how well a patient’s cancer will respond to treatment.
The study focused on patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease in which cancer cells lack receptors for the hormones oestrogen and progesterone, as well as the HER2 protein.
Patients with TNBC are usually treated with chemotherapy prior to surgery. While many respond well, residual disease at surgery, typically around six months later, is associated with a significantly poorer prognosis. Identifying people sooner who are unlikely to respond remains a major clinical challenge.
The research explored whether using PET imaging shortly after treatment begins, rather than relying only on MRI scans later in the treatment process, could provide earlier insight into how a patient’s cancer is responding. Twenty-two patients were recruited, with fourteen undergoing FDG-PET scans before treatment and after the first cycle of chemotherapy.
The findings, published in Clinical Cancer Research, showed that changes seen on PET scans after just one cycle of chemotherapy were strongly associated with subsequent response, including whether there was no detectable cancer, known as a complete response, by the end of treatment. Importantly, early PET response showed stronger associations with treatment outcomes than standard mid-treatment MRI scans in this study.
Being able to identify patients who are not responding well at an early stage could allow clinicians to adjust treatment sooner or consider alternative approaches. These findings may also support future strategies to better tailor treatment intensity to individual patients.
The study also compared two types of PET tracers, FDG and FLT, to determine which was most suitable. While both met the study’s technical criteria, FDG-PET was selected for further evaluation due to its better image quality, greater consistency and wider use in clinical practice.
The research also explored how imaging changes after just one cycle of chemotherapy relate to the body’s immune response to treatment. Biopsies taken before and after the first cycle of chemotherapy showed that an increase in immune cells within the tumour was strongly associated with both early PET changes and improved treatment outcomes.
The researchers emphasise that these findings now need to be validated in larger studies. Future work will aim to confirm these results in broader patient groups and explore more accessible imaging approaches, such as ultrasound, alongside PET and MRI.
Sheeba Irshad, professor of cancer immunology at King’s College London and lead of the Breast Cancer Now KCL Research Unit, said:
“In patients who had PET scans both before treatment and after the first cycle, we found that this early scan could predict whether they were likely to achieve a complete response by the end of treatment. These findings highlight the potential of early imaging to guide treatment decisions, and now need to be validated in larger, modern clinical trials.”
Andrew Tutt, professor of breast oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said:
“Research that helps us determine early who is already benefitting from standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy and who might benefit from clinical trials to find better treatments is vital. This study shows that FDG-PET may have great value in this regard. We hope to be able to design studies that further investigate and validate these findings.”
The study was supported by funding from King’s College London and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Breast Cancer Now, Cancer Research UK, and Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.
We are excited unveil the three finalists competing for one of the Femtech World Awards’ most coveted honours: the Startup of the Year Award, sponsored by Future Fertility.
This award celebrates an early-stage company making a bold impact in women’s health through innovation, vision and execution.
The winner will be announced at our virtual ceremony on 19 June, with the decision made by a representative from category sponsor Future Fertility.
Congratulations to the shortlist and thank you to everyone who entered or nominated.
Startup of the Year Shortlist
Hello Inside is the first women’s health AI company to turn daily metabolic signals into outcomes women feel and healthcare systems reimburse.
Women’s health has long been under-researched, and current AI benchmarks fail on women’s health questions roughly sixty percent of the time.
Hello Inside built the architecture to close that gap.
Across four years and 12,000+ validated metabolic profiles, three in four women improve at least one symptom within ninety days.
They lose four kilograms in three months, moving from overweight into the healthy range. In a clinical study with Alisa Vitti’s Flo Living, 91.9 per cent reduced PMS burden within sixty days.
U-Ploid is an early-stage biotechnology company tackling one of the most fundamental challenges in fertility care: the sharp, age-related decline in egg quality that limits outcomes across IVF and egg freezing.
While much of the field focuses on improving assessment and selection, U-Ploid is developing a first-in-class therapeutic approach designed to improve egg quality itself by addressing the biological causes of age-related chromosomal errors.
Supported by strong preclinical evidence and now advancing into human studies, U-Ploid combines scientific rigour, regulatory discipline and long-term vision to help redefine what is possible in fertility care.
Gestational diabetes is a strong risk factor for future type 2 diabetes, even in women with normal pre-pregnancy weight, according to a study at the University of Gothenburg.
The researchers call for earlier testing and better follow-up.
“Our results show that gestational diabetes functions as a kind of stress test for the body’s ability to manage blood sugar, and identifies women with a greatly increased risk of future type 2 diabetes”, said Jon Edqvist, PhD and affiliated to research at the University of Gothenburg, and operating room nurse at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
Gestational diabetes is a special type of diabetes that can affect pregnant women.
The condition is defined as elevated blood sugar levels, without previously known diabetes. Treatment involves self-monitoring of blood sugar, advice on lifestyle habits and, if necessary, medication.
Identifying gestational diabetes is important because the disease increases the risk of complications such as preeclampsia, the need for a cesarean section and high birth weight for the baby.
Those who have had gestational diabetes are also at higher risk of later developing type 2 diabetes.
In the current study, published in eClinicalMedicine, researchers now show that gestational diabetes is a strong indicator of future risk of developing type 2 diabetes, even in women with normal weight before pregnancy.
Elevated risk even with normal weight
The study is based on data from the Medical Birth Registry on just over 1.15 million first-time mothers in Sweden, who gave birth between 1987 and 2019. 16,870 women with confirmed gestational diabetes were compared with age-matched women without the diagnosis. The median follow-up period was nine years.
The results show that women with a BMI of 35 and above, i.e. severe obesity, had an almost tenfold increased risk of developing gestational diabetes compared to women with normal weight.
The risk of subsequent type 2 diabetes also increased with higher BMI, but it was significantly increased even with normal weight, which the researchers describe as particularly worrying.
More follow-up and more studies
The researchers behind the study welcome the recently updated recommendations on gestational diabetes in Sweden, where a higher proportion of pregnant women at increased risk are expected to be offered testing earlier in pregnancy, and if necessary, interventions.
“Diagnostics and care of gestational diabetes have looked very different in different parts of the country,” said Annika Rosengren, professor at the University of Gothenburg.
“There is a need for both improved follow-up after gestational diabetes, and more studies that investigate how such follow-up affects future health and prognosis”
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