16 November 2009
Breast Cancer Network Thrives in U.S.-Middle East Partnership
Advocates in Middle East, North Africa share ideas, information online
Washington — In the summer of 2009, an organization of medical students in Egypt wanted to find an oncology expert to provide training in breast and testicular cancer screening. The answer came through a thriving new social network that has brought together more than 250 medical professionals, breast cancer survivors and community activists in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Iman Ewais, a medical student working in Mansoura, Egypt, was organizing the training program through the Egypt chapter of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA-Egypt). She began reaching out to Egyptian physicians and breast cancer advocates through the social network, which is hosted on the Web site of the U.S.-Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research. Ultimately Ewais found Dr. Alaa Kandil, an oncologist at the Suzanne Mubarak Regional Center for Women’s Health and Development in Alexandria, Egypt. Kandil conducted a training session and arranged for a tour of the center, and the students met with its director, Dr. Hassan Salaam.
“Iman really didn’t know where to turn; she went on the network, and within a day she had a response,” says Roselie Vasquez-Yetter, project director for the partnership. The partnership is funded by the U.S. Department of State and links American medical experts, breast cancer survivors, advocates and businesses with counterparts in the Middle East to develop campaigns that raise awareness of breast cancer and expand research.
Through the network Ewais also met Dr. Samia Al-Amoudi, a member of the Saudi Cancer Society and a breast cancer survivor, and was invited to collaborate with her in establishing a medical student’s association in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The partnership was launched in 2006 with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, soon followed by Jordan. In May 2008, then-first lady Laura Bush announced that Egypt, Morocco and the Palestinian Territories would also participate. In November 2008 the partnership launched its Web site.
Breast cancer is the most common cause of cancer deaths among women worldwide, and more than a million women are diagnosed annually. In the Eastern Mediterranean region, breast cancer affects women at a younger age and is detected at a later stage than in developed countries, says Dr. Mahmoud M. Sarhan, chief executive and director-general of the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman, Jordan. He recently told an international symposium that cancer mortality rates are predicted to increase in the region in the next 15 years and that “breast cancer is expected to have the largest share” of deaths. In addition to limitations on health care resources and services, he said, social barriers play a part; for instance, in many places, breast cancer is a taboo subject.
One of the messages of the breast cancer partnership is that early detection — through clinical examination, self-examination or mammography — improves the success rate of treatment.
A NETWORK OF BREAST CANCER ADVOCATES
In addition to the initiatives in the six partner countries, “there is a much broader network across the region that has even expanded into North Africa as a result of these new technologies and the ability to convene people together,” said Vasquez-Yetter. People in 17 to 18 countries in the MENA region are participating, she said. The partnership engages more than 140 organizations in the United States and the region.
In 2008, the partnership sponsored a conference in Amman, Jordan, involving 100 breast cancer survivors, advocates, government officials and medical professionals from the region. “I’ve seen doctors from a wide variety of fields come together, but there had never been a convening of advocates and survivors,” Vasquez-Yetter said.
“These are people who are really in the trenches and are sometimes working on their own under very challenging circumstances,” she said. “What was so powerful was that they suddenly felt they were unified and were part of a larger network of other women and men they could reach just by sending an e-mail. They started to be able to share information and get advice, and also to be invited to things because someone knew they existed.”
She said this phase of the partnership “is exploring regional needs and realizing that there is so much capacity inside the region itself for people to help one another.”
THE WEB SITE
The Web site is in English and Arabic, and it hosts a blog as well as the social network. Some advocates from Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria have created a North Africa advocates group that communicates in French on the network.
IFMSA-Egypt used the social network to attract 300 medical students to run in the Race for the Cure at the Pyramids of Giza in October, Vasquez-Yetter said. The race, aimed at raising funds and awareness about breast cancer, was the first held in the Middle East. It was organized by the Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a U.S. network of breast cancer survivors and activists, under the auspices of Egypt’s first lady, Suzanne Mubarak.
During the Race for the Cure, about 15 advocates from the Amman conference were reunited, and they talked about the social network. “It was eye-opening” because there were unexpected examples of collaboration and outreach, Vasquez-Yetter said. A radiologist said she is invited to so many conferences that she refers to the Web site to decide where to best put her resources. A breast cancer awareness group got ideas about attracting people to their booth at a shopping mall (lots of pink balloons). Breast cancer patients and survivors said they felt empowered to talk about their experiences and take their health into their own hands.
Through the social network, medical student Ewais reconnected with colleagues from the West Bank and Gaza chapter of IFMSA and also shared IFMSA-Egypt’s experiences with the Patients’ Friends Society in the West Bank, which was planning a breast cancer campaign.
One day she learned about a group, the Egyptian Society for the Promotion of Women’s Health, that had won a grant from the partnership to teach women in a factory in Mansoura about breast cancer screening. Until then, Ewais “really thought she was the only person [in Mansoura] focusing on breast cancer,” Vasquez-Yetter said. “Out of the blue, just by looking around in this communal space, she found this other group. Since then they’ve met, and she’s going to be volunteering on the project.”
Background on the Partnership
The breast cancer partnership is funded through the State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Among the U.S. partners are the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins University, which collaborate with institutions in the Middle East on research, training and professional exchanges. M.D. Anderson has produced an online education series on breast oncology for medical professionals in English and Arabic. The series and other medical information, plus educational materials for advocates, are available on the Web site.
Susan G. Komen for the Cure offers training for advocates, and other groups provide breast cancer education in the workplace, oncology nurses training, and other programs targeted to each country. (See “U.S., Middle Eastern Experts Join in Fighting Breast Cancer.”)
President Obama proclaimed October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Slides of Dr. Mahmoud Sarhan’s presentation (PDF, 8MB) at the November 2009 International Symposium on Breast Cancer in the Developing World are available at the Harvard School of Public Health Web site.
- Middle East & North Africa: Partnering for peace and prosperity
- Saudi Doctor Uses Her Experience with Cancer To Teach Others
- Laura Bush on U.S.-Mideast Breast Cancer Awareness Partnership
- U.S., Middle Eastern Experts Join in Fighting Breast Cancer
- Proclamation of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
