The prevention, early detection and multidisciplinary treatment of breast cancer are important strategies for promoting health and extending a healthy life span. The Shanghai Breast Health Resource Center is an important step in effectively addressing breast cancer, especially to improving breast cancer screening and early detection, which are considered to be the most effective and affordable ways for a rapid reduction of breast cancer disease burden in developing countries like China.
The Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Shanghai CDC) and the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI), headquartered at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, jointly will establish the Shanghai Breast Health Resource Center as BHGI’s first “learning laboratory” in China.
It marks the first such agreement between the Shanghai CDC and a U.S. cancer research center.
The first project of the Shanghai Breast Health Resource Center, organized as a BHGI Learning Laboratory, will be an evaluation of the effectiveness of clinical breast exam (breast exam performed by a qualified health professional) for breast cancer early detection, based upon breast cancer screening conducted in Shanghai.
BHGI developed the concept of learning laboratories to define the essential science-based clinical elements for breast cancer care programs for low- and middle-resource countries through global collaborations.
“This agreement is an affirmation of the importance that the Hutchinson Center places upon designing programs to impact the prevention, early diagnosis and improved treatment of cancer among medically underserved people around the world,” said Larry Corey, M.D, Hutchinson Center president and director.
Breast cancer mortality has nearly doubled during the past 30 years in China, according to Chinese health officials.
In Shanghai, the rate of breast cancer increased 138 percent during past 30 years, and among the newly diagnosed breast cancer cases, early stage disease accounts for about 34 percent, which is about 10 percent lower than that in U.S., according to Ying Zheng, M.D., head of the Department of Cancer Prevention and Control at the Shanghai CDC.
“This groundbreaking agreement enables unique research collaborations in the critical area of breast cancer, which can serve as a model for development of comprehensive cancer prevention and control and building the capacity of multidisciplinary cancer prevention and treatment in China,” said Benjamin O. Anderson, M.D., BHGI chair and director.
BHGI, co-sponsored by the Hutchinson Center and Susan G. Komen for the Cure?, pioneered development of comprehensive resource-sensitive, evidence based clinical guidelines for international breast health and cancer control to improve breast cancer outcomes in low- and middle-resource countries through the collaboration of an alliance of dedicated organizations and individuals.
Source: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, USA