IWK Health Centre launches breast health research unit

CITYnews halifax / By Chris Halef

A new research team at the IWK is looking into why Nova Scotia has the lowest survival rate in Canada for people with breast cancer.

Earlier this month, the IWK Foundation received $2 million in funding to create the Breast Health Research Unit.

The Canadian Cancer Society estimates that one in eight Canadian women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and on average, 84 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer every day.

Dr. Gregory Knapp, a surgical oncologist at the IWK and Victoria General Hospital, says reports from the Canadian Cancer Society revealed Nova Scotia has the lowest survival rate in the country for those diagnosed with breast cancer.

He told 95.7 NewsRadio that the unit will look to benchmark where the province is now.

“The second pillar, if you will, is going to be looking at how we expand real-time data capture on outcomes—not just clinical outcomes, but also patient-reported outcomes,” said Knapp. “I think that’s critical, because anecdotally we are concerned there may be differences between the zones which shouldn’t exist, but we need to put numbers to that.”

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He says they’re not just looking to generate and collect data—they’re also going to identify the gaps and then intervene.

As of right now, IWK collects data on women with breast cancer, but the new unit will look to expand that knowledge and help change the survival rates and patient-reported outcomes.

“Alongside donors like the J & W Murphy Foundation, the IWK Foundation is on a mission to equalize women’s health care and research, locally, regionally and nationally,” Jennifer Gillivan, President & CEO, IWK Foundation, said in the press release.