The Cancer Nurses College have the following resources available for members:
On this page
Anal Cancer Support Services
For sharing with patient groups, as appropriate. A support resource for patients.
www.analcancer.co.nz
Consultations
Proposal to fund medicines for lung cancer, breast cancer, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and for the prevention of RSV
Kia ora
Pharmac wants your feedback on a proposal to fund more medicines for lung cancer, breast cancer, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and for the prevention of RSV.
If approved the new medicines will include:
- osimertinib (Tagrisso) for EGFR mutated advanced non-small-cell lung cancer as a first treatment option after diagnosis.
- osimertinib (Tagrisso) for EGFR (T790M) mutated non-small cell lung cancer who have received other treatments previously.
- trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
- palivizumab (Synagis) for preventing RSV in infants and young children at high risk of infection.
- triple inhaler (branded as Breztri Aerosphere) for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
This may be of interest to you and your networks, and I invite you to share this information so that as many people as possible are able to provide feedback.
Consultation closes on Monday 7 October. More information about Pharmac’s proposal, including how to provide feedback, can be found here.
After we have considered the feedback received in the public consultation, the funding proposal will be finalised and taken to Pharmac’s Board, or a delegate, for a decision. If approved, we expect at that the medicine will be available from 1 January 2025.
We will keep Pharmac’s website updated as the proposal progresses but if you have any queries, you are welcome to contact us at enquiry@pharmac.govt.nz or consult@pharmac.govt.nz.
Ngā mihi
Jared Solloway | Senior Therapeutic Group Manager
Back to top
Cure our Ovarian Cancer resources
Cure Our Ovarian Cancer have two programmes available for women with ovarian cancer.
- Online support groups (facilitated by an experienced counselor)
- TimeOut holiday home accommodation (TimeOut offers free stays in holiday homes and COOC offers an additional $200 grant to be used as the recipient sees fit - the only condition is that they are accepted through TimeOut).
They'd love for any woman who is interested to be able to access these programmes so please pass this information onto your patients and colleagues who would benefit from it.
Read more about these resources in the letter from Cure our Ovarian Cancer.
Lets end cervical cancer in Aotearoa - PLEASE SIGN OUR OPEN LETTER TODAY!
Kia ora
We need your help to end cervical cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand. Please go to https://endcervicalcancer.org.nz/ to sign our Open Letter to the Minister of Health.
What we’re asking for
The Open Letter calls on the Government to commit to the following by the end of 2024:
- Extend free cervical screening to all who are eligible
- Fully fund an equitable Cervical Cancer Elimination Strategy
- Urgently increase access to HPV vaccination among school children to reach uptake of 90%
Key timeframes
- The Open Letter at https://endcervicalcancer.org.nz/ is now open so you can add your voice.
- It will be sent to the Minister of Health in September with a meeting request.
- Meeting with Minister and health officials - to be confirmed.
What you can do
- Sign up as an organisation and/or individual. If you represent an organisation, it’s easy to sign up and share your logo. Go to https://endcervicalcancer.org.nz/ NOW!
- Share this email with your professional and personal networks. We’ve even drafted a simple message to include:
[I/We/Org name] am/are supporting the campaign to end cervical cancer – by asking the Government to commit to free cervical screening for everyone eligible, a cervical cancer elimination strategy and increased HPV vaccination rates among school children.
We’d love it if you can lend your support too. It only takes a couple of minutes to sign up and share your own personal experience if you’d like to. You can read more about it and sign up here - https://endcervicalcancer.org.nz/
- Share on social media. Here is the launch post we are promoting through our SM channels. We’ve also attached the tile if you’re like to create your own post.
Please share this content by following or liking our channels on Facebook, Instagram, X and LinkedIn.
- Add this tile to your email signature.
Please support this important campaign to end cervical cancer here in Aotearoa!
If you have any queries, contact us at policy@cancer.org.nz
On behalf of our Partners
Ngā mihi
Ellen Fisher (she/her) | Policy Lead, Cancer Care | Cancer Society of New Zealand | National Office
Mesothelioma Website
Approximately 3,000 individuals receive a mesothelioma diagnosis each year in the United States alone -- 2,500 of those victims lose their lives to the disease. Globally, over 43,000 people die from mesothelioma each year.
Mesothelioma.net provides:
- The very best in treatment information,
- 24/7 online support,
- Financial aid, and much more.
They are also 'Health On the Net' certified as a trustworthy site for health information (HONcode Badge located bottom right of site), and are periodically reviewed by medical professionals.
Lastly, they proudly sponsor:
- The American Cancer Society,
- the MD Cancer Center, and
- the Make a Wish Foundation.
Mesothelioma Support & Asbestos Awareness pamphlet
please see attached a pamphlet on Mesothelioma Support & Asbestos Awareness being distributed on behalf of a colleague who has been instrumental in
- setting up this trust
- supporting patients with a mesothelioma
- asbestos-related disease or silicosis diagnosis and also the carers supporting them.
They are also able to provide support for those patients through the ACC process.
Back to top
Publications
The Cancer Nurses College NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO) have produced a position statement to guide cancer nurses nationally in the safe handling of monoclonal antibody drugs (MAB’s). Monoclonal antibody drugs have historically been considered a subcategory of antineoplastic drugs and due to a paucity of evidence, handled with the same precautions. Evidence now suggests this may not be necessary due to the structure of these drugs. Although MAB’s are not considered as hazardous as conventional chemotherapy, nurses can be subjected to low level exposure over time and therefore specific precautions have been recommended.
We would like to draw your attention to the position statement (see link below) and encourage you to disseminate widely. Whilst the position statement is specific to cancer nursing it is recognised that monoclonal antibodies are administered in other areas of health care and nurses in these areas may also find this a useful guide.
Download or print: Position Statement on Safe Handling of Monoclonal Antibody Drugs (MAB's)
Please do not hesitate to contact the college if you have any questions at cancernursesnz@gmail.com.
The Knowledge and Skills Framework for Cancer Nurses (KSFCN)
In collaboration with the Ministry of Health (MoH), the NZ Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Cancer Nurses College (CNC) committee would like to provide you with a copy of the Knowledge and Skills Framework for Cancer Nurses (KSFCN).
Following a national consultation process, the final draft of the KSFCN was rigorously reviewed and subsequently approved and endorsed for implementation by the National Nursing Consortium in November 2014.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in NZ and as such requires the nurse to have the necessary education and tools to enable them to care for people with cancer across the health continuum in a number of settings. The KSFCN was developed with MoH support by cancer nurses for cancer nurses. The KSFCN is intended to complement your current professional development framework(s) as a tool to assist nurses working across the cancer care continuum to identify the specific knowledge and skills required to support their personal and professional development as generalist nurses caring for people with cancer and/or nurses who wish to specialise in cancer nursing. The NZNO CNC committee encourages you to utilise the framework with a view to enhancing nurse’s learning and cancer patient outcomes.
As part of the committee’s commitment to continuous quality improvement in cancer nursing, the KSFCN will be reviewed in January 2016 to assess the applicability and usefulness of the framework in practice. You will be invited to participate in the 2016 national review of the KSFCN.
Click to download/view: The Knowledge and Skills Framework for Cancer Nurses
If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me or any member of the reference group listed in the Appendix.
For further details please contact us at cancernursesnz@gmail.com
Analysis of the availability of cancer medicines in Aotearoa
On 29 April, Te Aho o Te Kahu, Cancer Control Agency released their analysis of cancer medicine availability in NZ Aotearoa - Understanding the Gap: an analysis of the availability of cancer medicines in Aotearoa. This report analyses what cancer medicines are publicly funded in Australia compared to Aotearoa.
Cancer medicines – whether curative or life prolonging – are a critical part of cancer care. Better cancer outcomes are more likely to be achieved when there is equitable access to effective medicines.
Increasingly, concerns have been raised about the availability of certain cancer medicines in Aotearoa compared with their availability in similar countries. It is these concerns that have motivated us to publish this report. We wanted to understand more about the gaps in cancer medicines, to inform our work and the advice we give to Government.
Along with informing cancer policy decisions - most importantly - we want this analysis to benefit those living with cancer and their whānau.
I would like to acknowledge the Te Aho o Te Kahu team, led by Dr Nisha Nair, who worked so hard on this analysis and the many members of our advisory groups who, along with local and international experts, have generously provided their knowledge and insights. This valuable piece of work could not have been completed to such a high standard without you.
If you have any queries or comments in relation to the report please contact nisha.nair@teaho.govt.nz.
Back to top
Previous conference presentations
Back to top