Women navigating incurable metastatic breast cancer face an isolating, confusing, and exhausting time. While they've historically been excluded from research, a new Queensland study is investigating how a diet and exercise program can promote their quality of life.
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00:00Sharon Oakley's breast cancer diagnosis brought her life to a standstill.
00:07When your world crashes, the first question you get asked is, are you going to die, Mum?
00:12Two years ago, she discovered the cancer had progressed to stage 4 and spread to her spine.
00:18I grieve for my life, you know.
00:21And I grieve not seeing what the kids are going to do when they're older,
00:25especially my, sorry, especially my grandbabies.
00:29She barely left her Townsville home for a year as she prepared her family for a time without her.
00:35And then I sat here one day and I thought, oh my God, I've just wasted a whole year.
00:42The 61-year-old is now taking part in a University of Queensland-led study
00:47investigating how a tailored diet and exercise program
00:51can improve the wellbeing of metastatic breast cancer patients.
00:55These women have been historically excluded from research.
00:58We know now that a metastatic diagnosis is a treatable disease,
01:03incurable but still treatable, and these women can go on to live long lives.
01:07The trial focuses on protein intake and strength training to maintain muscle mass.
01:13Results from the pilot study were promising.
01:16It's really targeted at ensuring that we try and preserve their lean tissue
01:22as they go through various rounds of treatment.
01:25Cancer patients living in regional and rural areas face extra barriers to treatment and support.
01:32This trial is being run via telehealth, giving women all over the state
01:37access to exercise physiologists and dietitians.
01:43The expert guidance has helped Sharon Oakley combat nausea, diarrhoea and brain fog
01:49caused by her medication.
01:51It's also restoring her energy levels.
01:53I feel like I've been in a spiral for seven years
01:56and it's only in the last probably six months that I feel like I'm more in control.
02:01Recruitment for the trial will continue until the end of next year.