Bone Drugs May Help Fight Breast Cancer

Photo by Erik Charlton

A recent study has found that a class of drugs that are most commonly used to combat bone loss may reduce by a third the chance that some breast cancers will spread or recur--NY Times.

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US-Middle East Partnership in the News: CNN Vital Signs

This past October, CNN’s Barbara Starr attended the Partnership’s Regional Breast Cancer Advocacy Conference in Amman, Jordan, and produced the above piece for the show Vital Signs. The report highlights the advocacy efforts of Dr. Samia al-Amoudi, a Saudi obstetrician and long-time Partnership supporter. Starr also interviews Dr. Mahmoud Sarhan, director general of Jordanian partner institution King Hussein Cancer Center. The report underscores many key issues discussed at the conference such as how to dispel cultural taboos, how to convince women to do self breast examinations, and increasing the number of women screened. Read more!

الرضاعة الطبيعية تحمي الأم من سرطان الثدي

(Breast Feeding Protects Mothers from Risk of Breast Cancer)

فوائد الرضاعة الطبيعية عديدة ومفيدة سواءً للأم او الطفل ، بالنسبة للطفل فإنها تساعد جهاز مناعته وتقويها ضد بعض الأمراض المعدية هذا وتعتبر الرضاعة الطبيعية جسر التواصل بين الام ووليدها فهي تقوي الروابط بينهما وتوصل له بهذه الطريقة الحب والحنان والدفء فيشعر وليدها بنفس المشاعرتجاهها .
اما فوائد الرضاعة الطبيعية بالنسبة للأم فهي كثيرة ومن ضمن هذه الفوائد ماأظهرته دراسة حديثة ان الام إذا قامت بإرضاع طفلها لمدة سنة خلال حياتها كلها فإن ذلك يقلل من مخاطر إصابتها بمرض سرطان الثدي .
وقامت مؤسسة أبحاث السرطان العالمية بتحليل 7 آلاف دراسة سابقة وتوصلت الى أن الرضاعة الطبيعية تقلل الإصابة بسرطان الثدي بنسبة 4.8 في المائة .
ولذلك من المهم للنساء معرفة فوائد الرضاعة الطبيعية فقد أظهرت الأبحاث الحديثة ان 3 من كل 4 نساء في بريطانيا لايعرفن أن الرضاعة الطبيعية تقلل من مخاطر الإصابة بسرطان الثدي وتقول الدراسة ان 3 أرباع النساء يمارسن الرضاعة الطبيعية إلا أن 22 في المائة منهن فقط هن اللاتي يواصلن الرضاعة الطبيعية بعد 6 أشهر . فلذلك من المهم تكثيف الوعي عن فوائد الرضاعة الطبيعية في المجتمع .

(A new study shows that breastfeeding reduces the risk of Breast cancer. If a woman breastfed her baby for a year once in her lifetime, it would reduce her risk in getting breast cancer by 4.8%)

Modia Batterjee

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Partnership Spotlight Series: Creating the Baseline Assessment of Breast Cancer Awareness and Care in the Palestinian Territories

Carol Jabari laughed out loud the first time I asked her to describe her experience putting together the US Middle East Partnership’s Baseline Assessment of Breast Cancer awareness and Care: West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. This past summer, in the sweltering heat of the Palestinian July, she and a team of local researchers investigated the current status of breast cancer services in the West Bank and Gaza. “We worked 18 hours a day for a month to get that thing done,” she recalled, a touch of incredulity in her voice. Despite the long hours and grueling schedule, Carol believes that the final report represents an unprecedented and invaluable resource for everyone working with breast cancer in the Palestinian territories.... The assessment, which Carol presented at the Partnership’s Regional Breast Cancer Advocacy Conference held in Amman, Jordan, was a decisive first step towards improving breast health in the Territories and a valuable tool that will help direct Ministry of Health strategic breast health plans for 2009 and beyond.

The US-Middle East Partnership approached Carol to take on an assessment of this size and scope in the Palestinian Territories because breast cancer has long been a significant problem with few resources available to address it. Carol, who has been working on breast cancer issues for over twenty years in the Territories, was a natural choice for the job. She has spearheaded several innovative breast cancer initiatives in the region and has worked with local government officials and international organizations. Carol’s accomplishments include: helping establish the first mammography unit in East Jerusalem; drafting the National Breast Cancer Screening Guidelines for the Palestinian Territories; establishing the Reach to Recovery program—a training program that instructs people on how to do outreach to breast cancer patients; and founding the Patient Friends Society, the only organization in the territories that offers psychosocial support for breast cancer patients.

Regardless of Carol’s familiarity with the Palestinian Territories, gathering the requisite information to distill a clear picture of breast cancer conditions on the ground was still a difficult undertaking. To start, the healthcare infrastructure of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem is still in disarray from years of conflict with Israel and there is a lack of services for the more than 1.5 million women who live there. In addition, the Palestinian Authority grapples with the challenge of providing services with limited resources across a fractured geographical area. As a result, access is a huge problem and it is very difficult to reach people with the myriad checkpoints, military zones, and security walls that crisscross the landscape. Finally, cancer statistics, the responsibility of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Health, are questionable and the health information system is not integrated, comprehensive or fully functional.

Despite the difficulty of the task and the obstacles that lay in their path, Carol Jabari and her team were undaunted. The team did in–depth personal interviews with hospital directors, administrator, and other key personnel across the three main health sectors. The team conducted focus groups of well women in four different communities in Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem districts and interviewed women living with cancer from Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem. These women shared their experiences living with cancer, detailed the difficulties they had accessing care and shared their hopes for the future. They got the information they needed first-hand from in-depth interviews and focus groups. When checkpoints prevented them from doing interviews, she did them over the phone. Overall, she found that despite all the obstacles, people were very receptive to what she was doing. Ministry of health officials lent their full support to the project. “People were quite forthcoming,” she said. The women trusted her and were eager to share what they knew.

After Carol and her team had gathered all the information they needed, the next step was to analyze their findings. Although she was not surprised by many of her findings, such as the and physical barriers to care and lack of infrastructure and capacity to handle breast cancer cases, what amazed her was the lack of awareness among Palestinian women about breast cancer. For example focus group of well women from Hebron and Nablus revealed a consistent lack of understanding among the women who participated. At the end of the session, “I was shocked at how uninformed they were. They didn’t know anything!” In fact, they found that because NGOs in the past had focused their breast awareness campaigns at rural women, “we found that women from rural villages actually knew more about breast health than city women did.” It was proof that the Palestinian Territories still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to improve breast health awareness.

Based on the results, Carol believes that there are several aspects of care that need to be addressed immediately, including:

• Upgrading the knowledge and skills of the professionals in West Bank and Gaza, through web or video conferencing and disseminating treatment guidelines through educational sessions.
• Training and recruiting more qualified x-ray technologists, including more female technicians
• Tackling the dearth of knowledge about breast cancer by funding programs that inform the public about screening protocols, referral mechanisms and the importance of early detection

Despite all the challenges, Carol remains hopeful about the task ahead. What gives her hope is number of people she met who are committed to improving breast care in the Palestinian Territories. The Baseline Assessment is a first step in the right direction. Now government officials, NGOs, and implementers in the development world have a better idea of where the need exists and can strategically plan and implement concrete programs that work towards improving awareness and breast health care in the Territories. With the assessment in hand and a little bit of elbow grease, advocates in the Palestinian Territories are helping pave the ways towards meaningful long-term change.

Read the Baseline Assessment of Breast Cancer awareness and Care: West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem

Carol Al-Jabari is the US Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research’s local representative in the West Bank. She is a trainer to promote breast cancer screening among professionals and student nurses. Currently she works as the executive director of the Patient Friends Society in Jerusalem.

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JEDDAH – Nearly 700 girls from 54 private girls’ schools in Jeddah, who were selected to be breast cancer national awareness ambassadors, visited a photo and documentary exhibition on breast cancer at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in Jeddah Tuesday. The breast cancer awareness program has been organized by Jeddah private schools and Sheikh Muhammad Hussain Al-Amoudi Endowed Chair Fund for Breast Cancer at KAU.The exhibition was designed to teach the visiting student ambassadors how to save lives by increasing awareness of breast cancer through education and encouraging an early detection plan to increase chances of surviving breast cancer.When breast cancer is found early, the 5-year survival rate is 98 percent, according to recent research information presented in the exhibition, with mammograms being among the best early detection methods. One in eight women are prone to be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime.The students were alerted to the inherited dangers in ignoring or keeping quite about this deadly disease.The exhibition was attended by Olfat Qabani, director of social affairs at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) and Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, supervisor of the Breast Cancer Chair Fund at KAU.At the end of the exhibition, scholarly papers on breast cancer from KAU received awards of appreciation. – Okaz/SGhttp://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2008120323634&archiveissuedate=03/12/2008

Modia Batterjee

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Teaching and healing

A teacher in the United States is teaching her students about cancer... just a reminder that teaching and strength goes both ways.

Link to the video



Transcript below:

The relationship between a student and teacher can be incredibly powerful.
In a fourth grade class in Littleton, Colorado the connection is not only strong, but healing too.
Kim Christiansen explains.
"So what do we know so far?"

TEACHABLE MOMENTS.
THEY CAN HAPPEN AT ANY TIME.
IN MRS. DEL DUCA'S 4TH GRADE CLASS -- MAPS AND TEXTBOOKS TAKE STUDENTS TO PLACES FAR AWAY IN THE IMAGINATION.
A LITERARY ESCAPE FOR STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHER.

"You know what they actually help me you know cause I can't think about my real life when I was 25 of these guys running around needing my attention...so I tell them you know I hope I can help you as much as you've helped me."

IN HERE MRS. DEL DUCA CAN ALMOST FORGET SHE HAS STAGE 4 COLON CANCER. SHE'S TOLD STUDENTS THE SMALL PURSE SHE WEARS IS FOR THE CHEMOTHERAPY...

"A lot of times, it's kinda harsh for her to have all the chemo and everything else, so I think it just makes us happier and her happier to have us here...right now my statistics from what I've researched is 10% to live for the next 5 years, so that's pretty low."

THREE TIMES SHE HAS TRIED AND FAILED TO GET HER INSURANCE COMPANY TO PAY FOR ADDITIONAL SURGERY AND CHEMOTHERAPY.

"Like I said in the board meeting experimental depends on if you have cancer or not."

UNDAUNTED...SHE WILL KEEP TRYING AND KEEP TEACHING...

"We just gotta keep on going in life instead of just stopping when you have a wall you have to climb pretty much...so instead of stopping when there's a struggle - just keep on going."

TEACHABLE MOMENTS -- YOU MIGHT FIND THEM IN A TEXTBOOK....

"Then it says but you children seem to be bringing her back to life...you guys I'm going to make a connection to that...cause you guys help me get through my sickness, so these children."

WHAT YOU'LL IN MRS DEL DUCA'S 4TH GRADE CLASS ...ARE WORDS TO LIVE BY...AND A TEACHER FIGHTING TO LIVE.

"I hope that they learn much more than a textbook could even teach them as far as empathy and compassion for others...I think that they have. These are my kids and i love them...I do."

Del Duca's friends and family are trying to help her raise the more than 80-thousand dollars she needs for a treatment that her doctor believes may actually be her cure.

Link to article

Link to the video
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Landmark Conference Brings Together Breast Cancer Advocates in the MENA Region

For three days, from October 31 - November 2, 2008, 136 participants from 15 countries came together for the first Middle East and North Africa Regional Breast Cancer Advocacy Conference: Building Bridges for Advocates Across the MENA Region.

Survivors participting in the conference

This landmark regional event was a unique opportunity for leaders in the women’s health and breast cancer awareness movement throughout the region to meet, share information, learn and explore ways to improve breast cancer awareness, detection and care for women in their local communities. Participants included advocates, grassroots leaders, doctors, nurses, government officials and academics.

Her Royal Highness Princess Dina of Jordan, addressing the crowd at the Opening Ceremony

Each day was launched by a plenary session focusing on a particular topic:

• Day 1: Breast Cancer - The Comparative MENA Experience
• Day 2: The Role of Research in Effective Outreach

Participants also engaged in various in-depth break-out sessions, including:

• Volunteerism in the MENA Region/Targeted Outreach
• Cause-Related Marketing and Private Sector Involvement
• Health Communications Strategies and Health Education
• Networking for Advocacy - Working Locally and Expanding Regionally

Each break-out session triggered discussions regarding the application of session topics to local needs and challenges in each individual country. As local contexts vary from country to country, interesting disparities arose between countries with different levels of financial and human resources. Discussions among countries with complementary strengths and weaknesses was of particular interest, and seemed to trigger opportunities for collaboration and further discussion.

Breast Cancer organizations set up informational stands which were displayed for the duration of the conference, and were highlighted during the Poster Session

In addition to the daily plenary and break-out sessions, participants engaged in activities offering opportunities to network with colleagues from around the region, and continue conversations initiated during the break-out sessions. In the end, participants left with new friends and ideas which they aim to cultivate and build upon in the year ahead.

Ms. Jamlah Ireqat poses a question to panelists during the Closing Session

In order to maintain the momentum created by the conference, participants are currently registering for the:

• Partnership Website - provides information about the Partnership, including activities, programs, news, resources, Founding Partner organizations, and various ways to get involved.
• Partnership Network - provides a platform for interaction between advocates, activists, and members of the medical community who are interested in promoting breast cancer awareness in the MENA region. This social-networking site allows members to create a profile, post pictures videos, share links, chat, participate in discussions, create groups and events, and generally build their professional network around the cause of breast cancer in the MENA region.
  

For more information, please visit and register for our website, and join our network!

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IVLP Women Discuss Breast Cancer

Seven women from the Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP), came to ICF International on Thursday, October, 16th to discuss breast cancer in their respective countries.

As October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the women participating in the October program are all involved in the fight against breast cancer in their countries, which include:

• Egypt
• Jordan
• Palestinian Territories
• Oman
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria

Following a presentation of the US-Middle East Partnership by ICF International, the discussion focused on breast cancer related issues of each country represented in the room. The diverse expertise of the group led to an interesting exchange of information ranging from the need for Oncology nurses in Syria, to the growing network of Egyptian medial students involved in raising breast cancer awareness on college campuses.

It is clear that the amount of work being done in these countries is unknown and unrecognized, particularly outside of the region. Contrary to popular belief, activities promoting the fight against breast cancer are being undertaken, and have been successful in communities throughout the Middle East. The challenge at this point is to inform entities outside of local communities of what is being done, so that there can be national and/or regional coordination where progress is being made.

In order to build upon successes and lessons learned of medical and advocacy groups throughout the Middle East, information needs to be shared. Forums for discussion such as the IVLP program are valuable in that they build bridges not only between the U.S. and the Middle East, but also between critical actors already active and mobile in the region.

If you are interested in joining a network of individuals and groups fighting breast cancer in the U.S. and the Middle East, join the:
Partnership and the Partnership Network

For more on the IVLP program, visit: http://exchanges.state.gov/ivlp/index.html

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Lighting the White House Pink

On the evening of October 7th, 2008, the White House was turned pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

First Lady Laura Bush spoke about the significance of eradicating breast cancer, and stressed the importance of public-private partnerships. The First Lady spoke at length about the US-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research, highlighting the successes of the unique Partership between the medical and advocacy experts in the United States and the Middle East.

"In 2006, I announced the U.S.-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. This partnership, funded by the Middle East Partnership Initiative, unites the medical expertise of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and the educational resources of Susan G. Komen for the Cure with local organizations in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates. Already, the Partnership has reached more than 17,000 beneficiaries. And at the end of this month, it'll expand its influence with a historic regional conference, bringing together more than a hundred breast cancer advocates from 15 different countries."

The event marked support of the United States in the fight against breast cancer, but also highlighted the increasing need for public-private partnerships in order to leverage resources, and maximize impact around the world.

Click HERE for the First Lady's remarks

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