57% of breast care nurses who took part in a UK survey for the charity Breast Cancer Care feel that there is inadequate provision for women with secondary breast cancer, a progressive incurable disease that kills half a million women worldwide every year after the cancer spreads to other organs.

Many said that they felt ill equipped to care for women with secondary breast cancer and that their time was dominated by meeting the needs of women with primary breast cancer.

They also said that they would like to offer a better support to women with secondary breast cancer, but felt they lacked knowledge and experience of the physical and emotional effects of this progressive disease and didn’t have the staff numbers or time available to provide an effective service.

The survey was conducted for a paper, which is being published ahead of the UK’s first ever secondary breast cancer awareness day, being held by Breast Cancer Care on October 13.

The paper stresses that training specialist nurses for patients diagnosed with secondary breast cancer must be an urgent priority.

Read the full details on the Medical News.