Breast Cancer A Health Risk For Women Worldwide

First lady Laura Bush brings message of hope and help to Middle East

Breast Cancer a Health Risk for Women Worldwide

U.S. first lady Laura Bush, encouraging women to undergo early screening for breast cancer, announced collaborations on testing and treatment programs during her five-day tour of the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan.

While visiting the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman, Jordan, October 25, Bush announced that similar programs will begin in Morocco, the Palestinian Territories and Egypt next year, with the help of $1.5 million in funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Middle East Partnership for Breast Cancer Awareness and Research, launched in 2006, links U.S. research institutions with Middle Eastern counterparts.

The institutions will "share discoveries and data that can lead to world-class research -- helping women in the Middle East and in the United States get better treatment for breast cancer," she told the Dubai Chamber of Commerce October 22. She also commended United Arab Emirates' workplace-based cancer awareness programs.

"Breast cancer does not respect national boundaries, which is why people from every country must share their knowledge, resources and experience to protect women from this disease," she said at King Fahd Medical City, a hospital complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 23.

In Riyadh she announced a new collaboration, the U.S.-Saudi Arabia Partnership on Breast Cancer Awareness, in which the Saudi Cancer Society will partner with the Susan G. Komen Foundation in a breast cancer education program coordinated by the U.S. Department of State's Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI). King Fahd Medical City will work with the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center to enhance treatment expertise.

Earlier in the day, at the Abdullatif Cancer Screening Center in Riyadh, Bush said that for reasons yet unknown, breast cancer strikes women at a younger age in the Middle East than in the United States, "so even younger women who aren't yet thinking about possibly having cancer should drop by the cancer screening and learn how to do self-exams."

"Early detection," Bush said, "is the closest thing we have to a cure." The Abdullatif Center, which has an entire floor for women only, and provides screening for several kinds of cancer, is the first medical facility of its kind in Saudi Arabia.

At all her stops on the tour, the first lady emphasized that a few decades ago American women lacked knowledge about breast cancer and were reluctant to discuss it. But then two former first ladies, Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan, went public about their own battles with the disease.

"Their willingness to speak out gave American women the courage to discuss their own breast cancer," she said. Advocacy organizations such as the Komen Foundation helped raise awareness. Now, deaths from breast cancer are going down. "Today in the United States, when breast cancer is caught early, the five-year survival rate is 98 percent," Bush said.

She acknowledged the courage of a number of Arab women who have come forward, among them Samia al-Almoudi, a Saudi doctor who diagnosed her own breast cancer and spoke out about it. "She's worked hard to increase women's awareness and improve medical care, even during her own treatment," Bush said.

Saudi Channel 1 TV host and breast cancer survivor Fadia Altaweel also shared her story with Saudi women, urging them to have regular screenings.

At the King Hussein Cancer Center in Amman, Bush lauded Maha Kalaji, whose long fight against breast cancer is an inspiration: "Maha has broken the silence, discussing her experience on Jordanian TV, and in newspapers and magazines from around the world. She knows that her own story of survival has helped other women to confront their own diagnosis. 'After 15 years of battling cancer,' she says, 'here I am.'"

The new screening unit at King Hussein Cancer Center and an outreach program were implemented in cooperation with the Komen Foundation.

Laura Bush has a personal interest in breast cancer treatment -- her mother and grandmother had the disease.

"The cure for breast cancer can come from a researcher in Washington or a young doctor in Riyadh. Wherever the cure is discovered, it will help women all over the world," Bush said.

Although her trip focused on showcasing public-private cooperation in breast cancer outreach, the first lady also met with women political leaders and attended an event that highlighted a MEPI-funded scholarship program in Kuwait.

ENDS

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