There are 550 000 people alive in the UK today who have, or have had, a diagnosis of breast cancer (Cancer Research UK, 2008). Breast cancer patients are the largest population of cancer survivors making up more than 25% of the 2 million individuals. It is not known how many of these have secondary/ metastatic breast cancer (MBC) but estimates range from 30 000 (Richards, 2002) to 100 000 (Johnston and Swanton, 2006). Breast cancer survival has improved year on year. The median time between MBC diagnosis and death is 3 years, with some very long-term survivors. Despite this, there is less or sometimes no specific CNS support for these patients.
展开▼
