Breast cancer experts bringing aid to Tanzania
They'll help set up breast-care clinic to screen, treat women
Treatment is limited to surgical removal of the breast, something many of the women reject. So for all those reasons, women who could be successfully treated somewhere else may die simply because of geography. Tanzania offers little to a woman who has breast cancer.
But it's changing. And a pair of breast cancer experts from Intermountain Medical Center are at the heart of that change.
Dr. Brett Parkinson, a radiologist who is imaging director of IMC's breast care services, and Dianne Kane, nursing director for oncology services, are heading to the African nation late this week to establish Tanzania's first clinic to screen and treat women for breast cancer.
"Women in Africa get breast cancer at higher rates than women in this country. They don't screen," said Kane, "so it's found at a much later stage, and the women generally die."
It was one such death that summoned help from the Utahns and others. Parkinson's brother, James, an attorney, was in Tanzania and saw an editorial written by a young man who was trying to raise his many children alone after breast cancer killed his wife at 39. Why, he asked, do we not screen and find such cancers earlier?
Hologic donated the mammography machines for Tanzania, including five that have already shipped and another half-dozen that will go later this summer. Alliance Imaging donated ultrasound machines. Film, casettes and other items have also been sent to Tanzania. Salt Lake-based Globus International Relief has coordinated the shipments.
In June, seven health providers from Tanzania came to Utah to learn how to set up a breast cancer program. During the 10-day training trip, Parkinson and Kane, along with Shannon McCarrel of Hologic, will hook up with those former students. Parkinson will teach radiologists how to read mammograms, while McCarrel helps technologists set up and operate the machines. Kane will explain the intricacies of setting up a practice that requires both patient flow and follow up. The training sessions will be in Dar es Salaam and Arusha, a large city near Mount Kilimanjaro.
But screening will only go so far, they acknowledge. Kane said that mastectomy is the only surgical option right now, but it shouldn't be. "Our plan over the long-term is this: We have surgeons interested in going over and teaching them to do lumpectomy and possible sentinel node biopsy. We're going to take it step by step."
When you diagnose breast cancer at earlier stages, you have more options, Parkinson said. And that's exactly what they hope to give their Tanzanian counterparts.
E-mail: lois@desnews.com
Recent comments
Hi my name is Gisselle i'm from the Dominican Republic and I&...
Gisselle M.V | July 8, 2008 at 11:05 p.m.
Brett and Jim, What a great way to help the women of Tanzania. Much...
Huff's Mom | July 8, 2008 at 8:47 a.m.
