TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 27, 2026--
Breast Cancer Canada and AstraZeneca Canada are investing $200,000 in matched research funding to address critical gaps in breast cancer survivorship and improve care for Canadians living with and beyond the disease. Announced at Breast Cancer Canada’s Canadian Night reception during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Madrid, the funding will support two Canadian research initiatives, each receiving $100,000 to advance innovative approaches to patient navigation, survivorship research and personalized care.
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Through this partnership, Breast Cancer Canada and AstraZeneca Canada are advancing research and innovation to address critical gaps across the survivorship continuum. The funded projects will explore digital health and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to strengthen patient navigation, better understand patient needs, and inform more coordinated, personalized care.
The announcement comes as survey data from Breast Cancer Canada highlights public support for better survivorship care:
“Finishing active treatment is a major milestone, but it is not the end of a patient’s breast cancer journey,” said Kimberly Carson, CEO of Breast Cancer Canada. “Patients can face ongoing side effects, uncertainty, and complex medical decisions for years. Through our partnership with AstraZeneca Canada, we are investing in responsible innovation to help ensure survivorship care advances alongside precision treatment.”
“At AstraZeneca, we’re driven by a bold ambition: to eliminate cancer as a cause of death, and that ambition extends beyond treatment to ensuring every survivor has access to the care and innovation they need to thrive,” said Dave Finlay, Franchise Head, Breast Cancer at AstraZeneca Canada. “We are proud to partner with Breast Cancer Canada to support Dr. Kamal Haider and Dr. Amina Silva, whose research aims to improve care coordination, strengthen support and advance more personalized approaches to survivorship.”
Breast Cancer Canada and AstraZeneca Canada Matched Research Grant Recipients
Patient Navigation After Treatment and Digital Health ($100,000)
Led by Dr. Kamal Haider, Medical Oncologist at the University of Saskatchewan, the SAGE-S project will explore and validate a two-way large language model to support survivorship, with research coordination across Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
The gap: After active treatment, patients may continue taking long-term medications and managing side effects. Between appointments, accessing reliable information and knowing how to respond to changing symptoms can be challenging.
The research: SAGE-S will investigate whether a secure, clinician-supported AI tool can provide tailored education and symptom-management support between visits. The project will assess how digital health technology can complement clinical care.
Long-Term Resource Framework for Metastatic Breast Cancer ($100,000)
Led by Dr. Amina Silva, PhD, RN, at Brock University in Ontario, this project will examine the ongoing needs of people living with metastatic breast cancer to inform more responsive, coordinated care.
The gap: People living with metastatic breast cancer often experience ongoing physical, emotional, and financial challenges while navigating ongoing treatment across multiple specialists and healthcare settings. As their circumstances change, ensuring care reflects their priorities can be difficult.
The research: Using AI-assisted analysis of experiences shared in online support groups, the project will identify unmet needs and develop a practical framework for nursing support. The findings will help inform more personalized approaches to care that better reflect the experiences and priorities of people living with metastatic breast cancer.
Advancing Survivorship for Canadians Affected by Breast Cancer
Survivorship is a core pillar of Breast Cancer Canada’s national advocacy and education strategy, reflecting the need for care that extends beyond active treatment. Canadians living with and beyond breast cancer may experience lasting physical, emotional, cognitive, sexual and financial impacts, alongside ongoing monitoring and follow-up needs that are not consistently addressed across the healthcare system.
The investment with AstraZeneca Canada advances this commitment by supporting research into practical, patient-centred approaches to survivorship care. From exploring AI-enabled tools to improve access to information and symptom-management support to identifying the evolving needs of people living with metastatic breast cancer, the two projects aim to generate insights that can inform more coordinated, personalized care.
“Canada possesses world-class research and clinical expertise,” added Carson. “This joint funding supports research designed to translate findings into practical, accessible support for Canadians living beyond breast cancer. By investing in survivorship research and innovation, we can build a stronger understanding of patients’ needs and advance more coordinated, patient-centred care.”
About Breast Cancer Canada
Breast Cancer Canada is a national charity dedicated to funding breast cancer research to improve outcomes for Canadians affected by the disease. Through research, education and advocacy, Breast Cancer Canada works to advance precision oncology, improve access to evidence-based care and address gaps across the breast cancer care continuum. Learn more at breastcancer.ca
Kimberly Carson and Dave Finlay announce grant award winners.
NEW YORK (AP) — Three once high-flying brothers convicted of exploiting their wealth and access to luxury real estate to drug and rape dozens of women were sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni announced the punishment for Tal, Oren and Alon Alexander — known collectively as the Alexander Brothers — after 11 accusers spoke in court.
“Your conduct was monstrous,” the judge told the men as she announced the sentences, saying their insistence that they have been rehabilitated since getting married and having children ”rings hollow.”
Upon learning their fates, Tal and Alon Alexander sat back in their seats with no real expression. Their brother turned to whisper something to his lawyer as the judge spoke.
Many of the women in the packed courtroom gallery appeared unhappy when the sentences were rendered. Over the previous hours, some of them choked up as they described how the assaults stole their innocence and left them haunted by nightmares and fearing men.
“It took one night, only a few hours, one invitation to completely wreck the girl I once was,” one woman, using a pseudonym to protect her identity, said as she stood at a lectern just feet from the brothers in a Manhattan courtroom.
Twins Oren and Alon, 39, and Tal Alexander, 40, were convicted in March of sex trafficking.
None of the brothers testified during the first phase of the trial, but each spoke Tuesday before they were sentenced.
Oren Alexander addressed the courtroom first, saying, “I am not here to discount what they have said,” referring to the women.
He said he and his brothers came of age at the height of hookup culture and, looking back and now as a father, he regrets many of the things he said about women at that time. However, he insisted that they never broke the law.
“My brothers and I have never drugged or raped anyone. We never trafficked anyone for sex and we never conspired to hurt anyone,” he said.
Tal Alexander also denied that he drugged or raped anyone. He asked the judge to assign him to same prison as his brothers, saying their parents, both age 70, hope to visit them every weekend, which might be difficult if they’re at different lockups.
Alon Alexander said he, too, has evolved from his regrettable past, noting that not a single woman has accused him of wrongdoing in the eight years he’s been committed to his wife: “Over time, that became my life: work, home, children, parents, community.”
The accusers who spoke in court — and another whose statement was read by a prosecutor — were among at least 70 women who prosecutors say were assaulted by one or more of the brothers over the last two decades in posh locales including the Hamptons on Long Island and in Aspen, Colorado.
Lindsey Acree, an artist and gallery owner, testified that she was raped by Tal Alexander and another man at a Hamptons home in 2011 after taking a drink that she said left her feeling paralyzed. Scrapping her prepared remarks, she told Caproni that a life sentence wouldn’t begin to do justice for the women whose lives were irreparably harmed.
“This has wasted my damn time. It’s wasted your time. It’s wasted everyone in this room’s time,” Acree told the judge. Turning to the brothers, she said: “For why? For you. Because you did some really messed up stuff.”
“The biggest thing is why? Why did you do this?” Acree asked. “I don’t understand the cruelty. I don’t understand the hatred towards women.”
Another woman who testified that Tal Alexander raped her in August 2014 said she carried “a quiet funeral in me for the person I might have become had this not happened to me.”
“Every second that Tal raped me in that shower felt like an eternity of terror,” said the woman, who used a pseudonym.
Another woman speaking about her rape in the Hamptons said: “What looked like a beautiful place became for me a mansion of horror, a mansion of dark secrets.”
Prosecutors had sought life prison sentences while the brothers’ lawyers had requested the 15-year mandatory minimum.
Oren and Tal Alexander were once nicknamed real estate’s “A Team” for their ultra high-end sales and celebrity clientele. After smashing sales records at industry powerhouse Douglas Elliman, the brothers started their own firm. Alon Alexander ran their family’s private security company.
The brothers projected an exclusive lifestyle of yachts, private jets and waterfront mansions in Miami, but prosecutors said they began sexually assaulting women as early as 2001 or 2002, when they were in high school, and over time developed a pattern of drugging and raping women who they enticed to join them on luxury getaways.
In remarks before the sentence was announced, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Espinosa told the judge that the brothers’ “callousness, carelessness, cruelty” in repeatedly drugging and raping women over many years warranted a life prison term, especially since all their victims would be serving life sentences of pain.
“Women overcame all the forces telling them this was their fault, they should stay quiet, that no one would believe them,” the prosecutor said. “Despite that pain, so many came forward and 11 women testified at trial.”
Alon Alexander’s lawyer, Howard Srebnick, called a life sentence a “death in prison sentence.”
In court papers, defense lawyers said the brothers apologize to the women they insulted or offended for conduct they admit was “insensitive toward the feelings of certain women at certain times.” They also maintained their innocence.
The trio were arrested in 2024 and have been held without bail ever since.
The judge, Caproni, has said she believes the brothers should not be incarcerated at the same prison because they were a bad influence on one another. The brothers’ lawyers plan to argue that they belong together, even behind bars.
FILE - This photo provided by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department shows Alon Alexander, left, and Oren Alexander, both of whom have been charged with sex trafficking. (Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department via AP, File)
FILE - Oren and Tal Alexander speak at a panel at the Rockstars of Real Estate Event in New York., on Sept. 3, 2013. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision for DETAILS Magazine/AP Images, File)
