Shocking Pink Party Appeal

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The Shocking Pink Party Appeal raised £145,000 over 18 months for my intraductal research project at The Royal Marsden Hospital. Donors and fund raisers alike were keen to support this specific novel breast cancer project to help a better, easier and less invasive technique to diagnose breast cancer.

Generosity
To each and every donor, from those who contributed a few pounds through to those who contributed many thousands and organised events, my team and I thank you for your thoughtfulness and generosity. It is not possible for our important and innovative research to continue without your kindness and support.

Thanks to the generosity of Elayne and Richard Cyzer (who read about the appeal in the
national press), we now have the most sophisticated mammary duct endoscopy system for direct visualisation of the breast ducts, utilising a sophisticated camera and image-acquiring system. The fibreoptic telescope is less than 1 mm in diameter and has a special working channel which allows us to take duct endoscopy one step beyond previous working models. Many of the abnormalities seen on duct endoscopy cannot be seen on conventional imaging techniques such as mammography and ultrasonography.

The new endoscopy equipment enables us to take samples for studies to confirm the exact nature of what is seen. We look forward to leading the field in pioneering this important work. The monies raised by The Shocking Pink Party Appeal will also go towards funding Ms Dominique Twelves (Clinical Research Fellow) and Ms Ann Ward, (Research Nurse) for the next two years, enabling our on-going work to continue and build on the successes of their predecessors.

Future
We thank all our supporters, Elayne and Richard Cyzer and the original members of The Shocking Pink Party Appeal, Sally Munton, Julia Williams, Sarah Dormeuil, Vivienne Verrill and Heather Roberts for their awe inspiring efforts as a shining example of the link between humanity and science working in synergy.

The Shocking Pink Party Appeal will continue to move forward under The Royal Marsden
Cancer Campaign. The Appeal’s future developments and fundraising activities will feature in the Cancer Campaign’s newsletter Progress.

Donations can be made through The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign and all enquiries
can be made to Corina Espinosa through my office at 145 Harley Street, London W1G 6BJ, telephone number 0207 487 5558 and e-mail g.gui@thelondonclinic.co.uk.

I have been touched by the generosity of all our supporters. Thank you all for believing in
us and allowing us to make it happen.

The future
This year will see the development of two randomised clinical trials of duct endoscopy
led by Gerald Gui and Dominique Twelves.

Suitable
The first of these will evaluate women who undergo breast conservation surgery for cancer. Up to a third of women who are deemed suitable for breast conservation surgery by conventional imaging such as mammography ultimately require more major surgery, many needing a mastectomy, because of unpredicted extension of the tumour beyond that predicted by preoperative assessment. In experienced hands, duct endoscopy has been shown to reduce the need for reexcision by direct visualisation of the internal breast. However, this work has never been confirmed and requires the rigorous standard of a randomised clinical trial to justify its availability to women with breast cancer. The second randomised clinical trial will be applied to women who require surgery for abnormal fluid spontaneously emanating from the breast that contain either abnormal cells or blood. This is an unusual presentation of cancer. Current treatment is often undirected and conventional surgery might miss the true source of the abnormality. Duct endoscopy is practiced in highly specialised centres in the USA to evaluate pathological nipple discharge but the actual benefit is unknown. We will be running the first clinical trial to evaluate this at The Royal Marsden Hospital and will no doubt create an impact on the future of duct endoscopy as a method of investigating of women with abnormal nipple discharge.

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