INTRODUCTION
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The 2012 GLOBAL SUMMIT on INTERNATIONAL BREAST HEALTH: Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control – Supportive Care and Quality of Life, will be convened by the Breast Health Global Initiative (BHGI), organised in co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) of the United Nations (categorized as a ‘Non-Agency Cooperation Meeting’), with OPEN REGISTRATION. The BHGI and PACT work together to integrate overlapping programs to achieve common goals of capacity building via stronger regional and national healthcare systems. In holding the 2012 Global Summit through international collaboration, the organizations seek to address a pressing cancer need, Supportive Care and Quality of Life (QOL), which begins at the point of cancer diagnosis and is required throughout the course of the patient’s life. Supportive Care and QOL is critical for resource allocation decisions, especially in low and middle resource countries (LMCs) where comprehensive treatment is not fully available.
International presentations, discussions, workshops and professional networking will connect national and international organizations and experts from around the world to analyze issues of Supportive Care and QOL in breast cancer care delivery. |
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CO-CHAIRS
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Julie R. Gralow, MD
Director, Breast Medical Oncology, Seattle Cancer Care Alliance
Clinical Research Division, Associate Member, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Professor, Medical Oncology Division, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle |
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Eduardo Rosenblatt, MD
Dr. Eduardo Rosenblatt is a highly distinguished radiation oncologist at the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT) and is Head of the Applied Radiation Biology and Radiotherapy Section, Division of Human Health and Nuclear Sciences and Applications, in Vienna, Austria. |
BACKGROUND: PRIOR BHGI GUIDELINES
To improve global breast cancer outcomes, the BHGI has developed comprehensive resource-stratified, evidence-based clinical guidelines to effectively detect, diagnose and treat breast cancer and prioritize resource allocation in breast care programs, through a series of Summits (held in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2010). The Guidelines are ‘tools’ for LMCs with systems-based solutions to assist ministers of health and policy makers, healthcare institutions, clinicians and others. The resource-stratified guidelines on Supportive Care and QOL in breast cancer care delivery that result from the 2012 Global Summit will harmonize with the previously published BHGI Guidelines.
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES, RATIONALE
Relatively little research has focused on key supportive care and quality of life issues for women suffering from breast cancer in LMCs. Supportive care and QOL are more difficult to measure than are standard statistics such as longevity, survival time and mortality rates. However, the fact that supportive care and QOL research is often ignored belies that undeniable recognition that QOL should drive resource allocation decisions, especially in limited resource settings where comprehensive treatment is not fully available.
The BHGI has the opportunity to reverse this neglectful trend of ignoring these issues by providing a setting where ‘mixed method’ (quantitative and qualitative) implementation research is explored in focused scientific fashion, to help determine what helps people live better with cancer and its treatments. By applying BHGI analytic and consensus methodology to supportive care and QOL research on breast cancer in LMCs, BHGI and IAEA PACT will host a ground-breaking event to drive creation of published guidelines on a largely unexplored but clinically critical health care arena.
- The Summit will analyze Supportive Care and QOL issues for breast cancer patients in LMCs from the perspective of Long-term Survivorship and Follow-up, Treatment-Related Supportive Care and Quality of Life, and End-of-life and Palliative Care, and development of the first Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control addressing Supportive Care and Quality of Life, for LMCs.
- UNIQUE EDUCATIONAL EVENT The 2012 Global Summit will provide a unique event in the international health community to analyze Supportive Care and QOL issues for breast cancer patients in LMCs scenarios, and enhance knowledge and understanding of optimal breast health care delivery in LMCs in this essential and multifaceted component of patient care.
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