Breast Angiosarcoma Surveillance Study (BRASS) – A National Audit of Management and Outcomes of Angiosarcoma of the Breast and Chest Wall

The BRASS study is a collaborative project led by practising breast and plastic surgeons in the UK and ROI.

National Data collection is now open. Please register to get involved using form below. Sarcoma centre collaborators are listed on the collaborator list below.

Jenny Banks presented an update at the 3rd iBRA Study Day.

The plan is to complete audit registrations in Feb/March 2017 and start data collection in April 2017.

Register your interest using the form below.

Aims and objectives

This is a retrospective multicentre audit
BRASS aims to use the trainee collaborative model to:

1. Define the incidence of primary and radiation induced angiosarcoma of the breast and anterior chest wall in the UK
2. Retrospectively describe the current practice in diagnosis, staging and management of primary breast AS and RAAS in relation to the National Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology Soft Tissue Sarcoma document, published by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).
3. Evaluate the outcomes of patients treated for primary breast AS and RAAS in the UK and describe prognostic factors.
4. Generate data to help guide best practice guidelines in the future
5. To inform a potential prospective study of primary breast AS and RAAS.

Methods

This is a trainee-led retrospective multicentre audit co-ordinated by members of the BRASS steering group.

Trainees from across the UK will be invited to participate in the study through the Mammary Fold and the National Research Collaborative network. A local Trainee Lead will be identified at each centre. Trainee leads will be responsible for identifying a supervising consultant and obtaining local audit approvals at their centre. If there are no trainees within a unit, consultants, associate specialists, speciality doctors or research nurses will be encouraged to participate and enter data on behalf of their unit.

The study will be piloted in five centers; Liverpool, Exeter, Bath, Leeds and Birmingham prior to national roll-out of the audit to evaluate the feasibility of trainees being able to identify appropriate patients and collect the necessary data. The pilot will also be used to test the acceptability of data collection pro-formas and the quality of data collection.

Inclusion criteria

All patients (male and female) over the age of 16 years with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of angiosarcoma of the breast, skin overlying the breast or anterior chest wall between 1st January 2000 and the 31st December 2015.

Exclusion criteria

Patients without a confirmed tissue diagnosis of primary breast AS or RAAS.

Research Governance

This project is being conducted as a clinical audit. Local collaborators will be required to register the project with their local audit department prior to commencing data collection.
No patient identifiable data will be collected for the purposes of the study.

Get Involved

Thank you to all of those who have signed up already. To get involved, please complete the collaborator registration form below.

We are particularly looking for collaborators in Newcastle, Manchester, Oxford, UCL, Marsden and Plymouth. Please see the sarcoma centre list below.