New focus on cancer needed: specialist

Dubai: Cancer treatment currently following the western model here needs to be revamped as patients in the region are younger, a specialist registrar said.

Breast cancer is affecting women 10 years younger here than elsewhere in the US and Europe, said Dr Shaheenah Dawood, specialist registrar with Dubai Hospital. She said the treatment here is based on western model and American research.

The doctor also said the impact of adopting a Westernised lifestyle is now showing its effects in the emirates and cancer cases are increasing. She said the increasing numbers could be because that more women are now aware and because of more screening programmes being conducted.

The doctor is also the president of the UAE Cancer Congress which started yesterday at the InterContinental Hotel in the Dubai Festival City. The event has brought hundreds of regional and international specialists here and is supported by Dubai Health Authority and European Society of Medical Oncology.

"By using a multi-disciplinary approach and focusing on key topics like breast cancer, we are trying to address the rise of cancer in the region and how best it can be treated," said Dr Mohammad Abbas, president of the Emirates Oncology Society.

Management

The theme of the meeting will be the multi-disciplinary approach to cancer management, whereby doctors, nurses and allied health care professionals play an equal role in patient care, working and learning as a team, according to a statement from the Congress.

Dr Shaheenah said such a multi-disciplinary approach in treating cancer is presently lacking in the country. "When I arrived here two years ago there was no cancer care programme," she said. But now all facilities are available in the country and you do not have to go abroad for treatment, she said.

But the doctor said what is needed is a cancer registry. The doctor said the treatment being offered needs to be tailored locally as the patients here are found to be younger. The specialist earlier told Gulf News that young women are shy to mention their personal ailments to male relatives and that is why treatament is delayed.

The professionals will see presentations on a wide range of cancers.