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Impact of the Middle East unrest on management of breast cancer–A single institution experience

Research Authors
A Khalifa, M Abdul-Hadi, H Al-Haddad, L Abu-Rida
Research Date
Research Member
Research Publisher
American Association for Cancer Research
Research Year
2016
Research Abstract

King Fahad University Hospital of Dammam (KFHU) is a major referral teaching Hospital in the Eastern province in Saudi Arabia. With permission, The Breast Division at KFHU accepts expatriate patients for treatment of breast cancer free of charge. Between Jan 2010 and June 2015 the unit has received 435 new and previously treated breast cancer patients, 35% of them were expatiates. We have noticed that most of these patients had an out of their hand delay in initiating either their investigations for a breast lump or start of active treatment; this has resulted in less than optimum prognosis in many cases. We reported that 75% of these patients had an average of 6-19 months delay before they presented for investigations of a breast mass, 25% had received previous irregular treatment and did not complete their management due to war unrest and travelling. More than 70% of patients who needed radiotherapy …