Saleh Fareed JEDDAH — Even though breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women, breast cancer mortality rates have somewhat declined in recent years and these decreases are believed to be the result of earlier detection through screening, increased awareness, as well as improved treatment, according to an expert. Other views were also expressed by experts during a seminar on breast cancer held at the 5th Annual Breast Cancer Conference, organized by Princeess Noura Oncology Center in Jeddah last week. The seminar was attended by a large number of medical specialists from various local health institutes. Addressing the seminar, Professor Guiseppe Viale, chairman of the Central Pathology Office in Italy said that although more and more women are surviving the disease, breast cancer is the most common disease among women in the world including Saudi Arabia, US and Europe. He added, “Unfortunately there is no simple answer to this. Breast cancer is a complicated disease with a variety of different causes. Many aspects of our lives swing our risk in one direction or another. Some of these can be controlled, while others are largely out of our hands.” “Women are living longer now than ever before, and we believe one of the risks for most cancers is simply getting older.” He believes the widespread use of mammography examinations and new anti-cancer drugs contributed to the decrease. The decrease, he said, "largely reflects improvements in prevention, early detection and treatment." According to Viale, although breast cancer has no certain cause, there are risk factors that increase the chance of breast cancer. He explained that there are many other potential causes of breast cancer and some of the risks are: birth control pills, daily diet, changing life style and chemicals in our environment. In his presentation Viale noted that a greater understanding of the underlying biology of breast cancer has resulted in the identification of a number of molecular targets and development of novel therapeutics which means that this is the era of Key Targeted Therapy. “Targeted therapies are transforming the way people treat cancer.” “These carefully designed drugs have already begun to make personalized medicine a reality and will continue to help doctors tailor cancer treatment based on the characteristics of each individual's cancer. It is important that health care professionals become familiar with the concept of targeted therapies so they can communicate with their patients about these new approaches and help patients make better-informed treatment decisions,” he said.
