What do you think about treatment breaks for patients living with breast cancer?

For patients living with life-limiting (metastatic) breast cancer, treatment aims to increase length of life while also reducing symptoms from the cancer, and minimising drug side effects.

Treatment is usually given in continuous cycles, but some research suggests that it might be beneficial to introduce breaks in treatment to enable cancer cells to regain their sensitivity to the drug being used. A treatment break might also help manage side effects and reduce the number of visits to the hospital for a patient.

Would you feel worried about being off treatment? Would you be reassured if you could be monitored in some way during the treatment break? Would you like the opportunity to have time off treatment and away from the hospital?

How you can get involved

We would like to hear from people who are living with life-limiting breast cancer, to understand your feelings about continuous treatment and the possibility of treatment breaks. This would help inform the design of a clinical trial to see if treatment with breaks is as good as continuous treatment.

After a fantasic response the survey is now closed. If you are interested in hearing about the next stages of the project please sign up via the stay informed box on the right hand side of this page.

A message from Zoe:

I would like to say an enormous thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. I have read through all the responses and am grateful for your insights and honesty. Your feedback will play an important role in shaping our research plan.

If you opted to stay in touch, I will be in contact after Easter with further details about the focus groups.