“It changes how much you can work for. It changes everything overnight for your family.”
Satchell said she was grateful for the support of her loved ones and workplace over the next few months as she went through a mastectomy, chemotherapy and five weeks of radiotherapy.
Kathy Satchell (right) was one of 5637 patients who participated in the MonarchE trial coordinated by oncology nurse Jenni Scarlet. Photo / Supplied
Satchell said the side effects of treatment were the most difficult part of the journey not just because of how they impacted her, but her family as well.
“There’s always that doubt that there might not be a good outcome,” Satchell said.
“You meet lots of people along the way and some don’t have that good of an outcome.”
So when Satchell finished her treatments she said she felt lucky but also “drained”.
“I almost felt like I was finished.”
Then the registrar at her oncology follow-up suggested she might qualify for a Breast Cancer Research Trust-run drug trial. The charitable trust is based at Waikato Hospital.
“I’m a nurse, so I know that to get any medications funded we’ve got to do these trials and that is the system.”
Satchell said she was not sure she had it in her to go through a trial but the idea it could give others hope motivated her to say yes.
“There are so many people diagnosed with breast cancer, to give them time with their families was the most important thing to me.
“I wanted to do it for my family too. I wanted to do what I could to be there with them in the future. And hopefully, we could save some lives from the trial too.”
Satchell agreed to participate in the MonarchE trial, which aimed to evaluate whether a combination of the drug abemaciclib, a targeted biological therapy drug, plus standard adjuvant endocrine therapy could improve the outcomes of women with high-risk early breast cancer.
Breast Cancer Research Trust senior research nurse and MonarchE trial coordinator Jenni Scarlet. Photo / Supplied
Breast Cancer Research Trust senior research nurse and trial coordinator Jenni Scarlet said access to clinical trials advanced knowledge of breast cancer and helped to discover best-practice treatments.
Scarlet said trials like MonarchE were part of the reason cancer treatment had come a long way since she started practising as an oncology nurse in the 1980s.
“Research is the best weapon we have to fight breast cancer.”
Scarlet said Satchell was one of 5637 patients from 38 countries committed to long-term testing over the next ten years after treatment.
The trial has been running for four years and was showing abemaciclib plus endocrine therapy significantly reduced breast cancer recurrence.
Results so far showed disease-free survival rates were 85.8 per cent with abemaciclib and endocrine therapy versus 79.4 per cent with endocrine therapy alone.
Scarlet said for the participants she had spoken to, these results “meant the world”, which “made it all worthwhile” for her.
“We could have had no change in outcome whatsoever but to see the significant results felt really good.”
Satchell said her hope was that the results from the trial would eventually give women with breast cancer and their families “some extra protection” and security.
In the meantime, Satchell’s message for women everywhere was to get their mammograms done.
