Advocacy groups for breast cancer patients

Breast cancer patient advocacy groups emerged in the 1990s to support and empower women with breast cancer. Women with cancer and oncologists tend to have divergent perspectives on how breast cancer prevention should be defined and what the priorities for research should be. As their American counterparts have done, breast cancer patient advocates in Canada are seeking greater participation in decision making with respect to research. To date they have had more input into research policy decisions than into the planning of specific projects. In 1993 the National Forum on Breast Cancer recommended that women with breast cancer should have more input into the research process; breast cancer patient advocates will continue to actively pursue this objective.