A project by Elis Ong supported by AICS for the early diagnosis of breast cancer
December 11, 2018 - The first Palestinian Breast Unit was presented in Beit Jala (Bethlehem) on Sunday 9 December.
It is the first and only multidisciplinary breast center in the country, born thanks to the collaboration between the Jerusalem Office of the AICS - Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, Elis Ong which developed the project and theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma which provided its doctors and the experience of the Breast Unit active at its University Hospital.
The project, together with the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian government, has allowed the training of local professionals with training on site and in Rome at the Campus Bio-Medico University Polyclinic, bringing Palestinian breast medicine to the level of the European Breast Units, foreseen by the European Union since 2003.
“We very gladly joined this project – has ofchiarato Davide lotteries, vice president ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma - because it fits perfectly into the strategic lines of the University. For many years we have been building links with other countries and with universities around the world to enrich our students and cooperate with others.
In this sense, next year we will inaugurate a degree course in medicine and surgery in inglese, with an internationally recognized qualification, and we will host students from all over the world in Rome".
The recently restructured and adapted Beit Jala hospital ward can now count on an ultrasound, a mammography with tomosynthesis and computer systems. Thanks to them, the multidisciplinary team with oncologists, breast doctors, plastic surgeons, nurses will be able to follow at least 150 patients a year, in all phases of the diagnostic-therapeutic path, equal to about 40 percent of all cases of breast cancer. bosom of Palestine. These are constantly growing numbers: in the first two months of activity alone, the Breast Unit has helped more than 300 women from all over Palestine to check early for the presence of a tumor and to intervene promptly, at the same time saving the Palestinian health system the equivalent of over two hundred thousand dollars for diagnostic investigations alone. Of these, about 26 were diagnosed with early breast cancer.
Before the opening of this Unit, Palestinian women who wanted to screening oncologist had to wait between 4 and 6 months, i.e. a period of time in which health conditions can seriously worsen, forced to travel to Jordan and Israel, with trips that could last even months at a considerable cost.
“In recent months we have worked to transfer the experience of the Breast Unit of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital to Palestinian doctors and nurses – recalled Vittorio Altomare, head of the Roman Breast Unit and scientific director of the project – Ours has been a very rich scientific and human journey, which has made it possible to fill a very important gap in Palestinian health care. Palestinian doctors and nurses have enthusiastically welcomed the multidisciplinary approach of the European Breast Units. We will continue to be close to them to increase this heritage and bring theirs cure rate at the levels of European women. In fact, in the next few months we will open a hospitalization department dedicated to women, we will start the use of the intraoperative ultrasound technique for oncoplastic surgery, we will acquire a new technique for identifying the sentinel lymph node. Together we will give life to a scientific study and finally, in March 2019, we will hold the second joint Italian-Palestinian conference at the headquarters ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma".
The project has brought about an important change for the female population, who now "at the first suspicion of a breast problem" can carry out an early screeninging complete a few steps from home.