Global Summit Series

To create the first-ever breast health Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control that specifically address the resource needs for providing comprehensive breast health care in LMCs, BHGI held three biennial international summits applying a unique evidence-based, expert consensus approach:

• Comprehensive guidelines by selected expert panels
• Consensus opinions based on evidence review
• Publication of a) consensus and b) individual manuscripts

These biennial "Global Summits on International Breast Health" (Global Summits) have been the foundational basis for development of the BHGI Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control (Guidelines PDF). Global Summits were held in October of 2002 in Seattle, January of 2005 in Bethesda, and October 2007 in Budapest. The published outcome of these meetings are consensus-based guidelines addressing Health Care Disparities (June 2003), Resource Stratification (Jan 2006) and Guideline Implementation (to-be-published Oct 2008). The completed BHGI resource-sensitive guidelines defining comprehensive evidence-based pathways for coordinated step-by-step quality improvement in breast cancer early detection, diagnosis, and treatment.

Global Summit Series: 2002 (Seattle), 2005 (Bethesda), 2007 (Budapest)

Clinical guidelines for LMCs have been published as a result of each summit.

2002: "Global Summit on International Breast Health" Seattle, Washington

Health Care Disparities (International Breast Health Care: Guidelines for Countries with Limited Health Care Resources, Breast Journal, May/June 2003: Vol. 9, Suppl 2)

Consensus statements regarding health care disparities in LMCs that affect breast health care were published by 3 expert panels: Early Detection; Diagnosis; Treatment

Hosted by NCI Office of International Affairs

Consensus statements regarding resource allocation in LMCs were published by 4 expert panels: Early Detection; Diagnosis; Treatment; and Health Care Systems. In each area, resources were stratified into one of four levels to provide a framework for program development:

Basic level - Core resources or fundamental services necessary for any breast health care system to function.
Limited level - Second-tier resources or services that produce major improvements in outcome such as survival.
Enhanced level - Third-tier resources or services that are optional but important, because they increase the number and quality of therapeutic options and patient choice.
Maximal level - Highest-level resources or services used in some high resource countries that have lower priority on the basis of extreme cost and/or impracticality.

2005 Spanish translation - The consensus statements from the 2006 publication were translated into Spanish, published in the Breast Journal in 2007, and have been circulated throughout South and Central America by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Latin American Society of Medical Oncology (SLACOM).

Hosted by American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), October 1-4, 2007

Guideline Implementation (Guidelines for International Breast Health and Cancer Control-Implementation, publishedas a supplement to Cancer, October 15, 2008)

Consensus Statements regarding guideline implementation in LMCs prepared by 4 expert panels: Early Detection; Diagnosis; Treatment, Health Care Systems. In addition, special focus group consensus manuscripts were developed to address key issues in breast pathology, management of locally advanced cancer, and economic modeling. BHGI Guideline implementation systematically addresses breast health care from initial cancer identification through completion of therapy, thereby providing an outline for the development of comprehensive breast care programs in LMCs.