Breast Health Global Initiative partners with PACT

The Global Summit on International Breast Health, held June 9-11 in Chicago, kicked off with the announcement of a new partnership between the Hutchinson Center’s Breast Health Global Initiative and the Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT).

“BHGI is an important example of a partner that can deliver—providing concrete guidelines for planning and then delivering breast cancer control,” said Dr. Massoud Samiei of PACT, an arm of the International Atomic Energy Association devoted to reducing cancer deaths by providing education, screening and radiation therapy in low-resource settings. PACT currently has eight pilot projects in Albania, Ghana, Nicaragua, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Vietnam and Yemen.

“The resource level available for optimizing health care delivery within a country or community is a critical component of implementation that has not been directly addressed by other health care guidelines,” said Dr. Benjamin Anderson, BHGI founder, director and leader of the 2010 Summit.

Previous BHGI Summits in 2002, 2005 and 2007 resulted in groundbreaking research and consensus guidelines addressing appropriate breast cancer detection diagnosis and treatment strategies for low- and middle-resource countries. For 2010, the focus and theme was “Optimizing Health Care Delivery” in these countries with the highest rates of breast cancer fatalities.

Co-convened by BHGI and the Latin American and Caribbean Society of Medical Oncology, the Summit drew participants from 43 countries and five continents. Attendees heard case studies of successful programs from around the world, including the BHGI’s first international learning laboratory and model program in Ghana.

For more information on the BHGI or the Global Summit on International Breast Health, visit www.bhgi.info or contact Leslie Sullivan, BHGI managing director, at lsulliva@fhcrc.org or (206) 667-2545.

[Adapted from a BHGI news release]