Fertility After Cancer Predictor (FoRECAsT)
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Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in reproductive aged women and many women are diagnosed before they have started or completed their families. Fortunately, survival from early breast cancer is almost at 90%. These women then need to deal with the consequences of treatment, such as potential infertility. Research has shown that fertility is a priority amongst these women and concerns about how cancer treatment impacts fertility may influence cancer treatment decisions. Thus, being able to provide women with information about how their fertility will be affected by treatment is important. This can help them to make decision around fertility preservation prior to starting adjuvant treatment.
Whilst there is general information about the potential effects of cancer treatments on fertility, there is no mechanism for obtaining personalised information about likely fertility outcomes. Current "calculators" consider cancer type and treatment, but do not consider this in the context of a woman’s fertility prior to cancer treatment. The aim of this study is to develop an online fertility predictor targeted at young women with breast cancer. This ‘calculator’ will take into consideration both intrinsic individual fertility-related characteristics, and the likely impact of cancer treatment to produce a risk of infertility. This tool will be available to women in order to inform decision making around breast cancer treatments. The FoRECAsT study consists of four phases: Phase 0: Development of the FoRECAsT tool Phase I: Exploration of the Facilitators and Barriers of the FoRECAsT tool Phase II: Testing the Acceptability and Usability of the FoRECAsT tool Phase III: Evaluation of the FoRECAsT tool using a Randomised Controlled Trial This study is funded by the Victorian Cancer Agency. WORKING PARTY: Dr Michelle Peate (University of Melbourne), Prof Martha Hickey (University of Melbourne), Dr Yasmin Jayasinghe (University of Melbourne), Dr Zobaida Edib (University of Melbourne), Prof Christobel Saunders (The University of Western Australia), Dr Shanton Chang (University of Melbourne), A/Prof Kate Stern (Royal Women's Hospital and Melbourne IVF), Ms Alexandra Gorelik (Australian Catholic University), Ms Nipuni Ratnayake Gamage (University of Melbourne), Dr Alice Hucker (University of Melbourne), Dr Antoinette Anazodo (Sydney Children's Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital), Prof Kelly Ann Phillips (Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre), Prof Liz Sullivan (University of Technology Sydney), Dr Ann Partridge (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Dr Genia Rozen (Melbourne IVF), Prof Richard Anderson (University of Edinburgh), Ms Mary Macheras-Magias (Breast Cancer Network Australia), Dr Lesley Stafford (Royal Women’s Hospital), Dr Patrick Pang (University of Melbourne), Dr Laura Chin-Lenn (The Royal Melbourne Hospital). To see the complete list of published papers and presentations related to this study, click here |
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