(MENAFN - Arab News) One out of every eight women in the Eastern Province has breast cancer, said Omar Bayamin, medical technical director at Prince Saud bin Jalawi Hospital in Ahsa. "Over the past four years, we received a total of 6,000 breast cancer cases," he said.
In the Kingdom the rate is one in 12 women. "This puts the Eastern Province as the highest ranking region in breast cancer cases," said Bayamin, adding that the country's rates are less than the global rates. On the other hand, the cases here are usually discovered at an advanced stage of the disease, due to the lack of awareness among Saudi women about the importance of an early detection, he said.
An early detection of the disease can pave the way in 95 percent of all cases to an effective and successful treatment.
A recently launched campaign aims to raise awareness of breast cancer
among women to fight the disease. "The first clinic for the early detection of the disease in Ahsa was opened in 2009 at King Fahad Hospital in Hofuf.
That year, 219 received treatment, against 2,844 in 2012," said Bayamin.
Explaining some details of the treatment procedure he said: "We start with a minor surgery on the breast in addition to the chemotherapy over a long period of time."
The Saudi Cancer Society in Ahsa honored Luai Al-Jbaily, an anemia patient, and Abdulmalek Al-Muhaifez, a child who suffers from autism.
They won a gold and silver medal, respectively, at the Special Olympics World Winter Games held in South Korea two weeks ago.
The manager of the society in Ahsa, Emad Al-Jaafari, said that to honor these two kids is to acknowledge their efforts. He hoped this would encourage them to realize further achievements.
"The society celebrates the international day of cancer every year to spread awareness about cancer," he added.
He hoped the breast cancer campaign would increase the early detection of the disease and boost the cure ratio to 99 percent.
