Patient Advocacy Approaches to Improving Care for Breast and Cervical Cancer in East and Southern Africa.

PURPOSE: Breast and cervical cancer are the most common cancers among women in East and Southern Africa, where mortality remains high because of late diagnosis and limited access to treatment. We explored local approaches to breast and cervical cancer advocacy to identify the most pressing issues and opportunities for increasing the impact of civil society activities in the region. METHODS: Focus group discussions were conducted with participants of the 2016 Women's Empowerment Cancer Advocacy Network (WE CAN) Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Discussions were audio-recorded, transcribed, coded, and analyzed for emergent themes. Results were presented to participants of 2019 WE CAN summit for cross-validation. RESULTS: Four focus group discussions were conducted with 50 participants. Thirty-six (70%) identified as advocates, 30 (59%) as cancer survivors, 14 (27%) as nongovernmental organization representatives, 13 (25%) as researchers, 4 (8%) as clinicians, and 6 (8%) as policymakers. Although most participants focused on cancer awareness and screening/early detection, some noted that treatment was often unavailable and advocated for a broader strategy to improving access to care. Challenges to designing and implementing such a strategy included knowledge gaps in addressing late diagnosis and access to care, difficulty collaborating with like-minded organizations, approaching policymakers, and addressing treatment financing. Cancer coalitions, although rare, were crucial to building collaborations with ministries of health, policymakers, and international organizations that advanced breast and cervical cancer care. CONCLUSION: Participants indicated that they would benefit from additional training about resource-appropriate best practices for improving breast and cervical cancer care and outcomes. Coalition-building and collaborations, including with oncologists and other medical professionals involved in cancer care, were crucial to leveraging limited resources, sharing lessons learned, and developing local solutions to common challenges.

Knowledge Summaries for Comprehensive Breast Cancer Control.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide, affecting > 1.6 million women each year, projected to increase to 2.2 million cases annually by 2025. A disproportionate number of the > 500,000 women who die as a result of breast cancer each year reside in low-resource settings. Breast cancer control is an important component of cancer control planning and women's health programs, and tools are needed across the care continuum to reduce the cancer burden, especially in low-resource settings. Cancer control planning is complex and multifaceted. Evidence shows that outcomes are improved when prevention, early diagnosis, treatment, and palliation are integrated and synchronously developed within a country/region's health plan. The Knowledge Summaries for Comprehensive Breast Cancer Control are the product of a multiyear collaboration led by the Union for International Cancer Control, Breast Health Global Initiative, Pan American Health Organization, and Center for Global Health of the US National Cancer Institute. Fourteen knowledge summaries distilled from evidence-based, resource-stratified guidelines, and aligned with WHO guidance on breast cancer control, build a framework for resource prioritization pathways and delivery systems for breast cancer control at four levels of available resources: basic, limited, enhanced, and maximal. Each summary contains relevant content to inform breast cancer policy, clinical care, and advocacy, aiding in the development and implementation of policies and programs. These tools provide a common platform for stakeholders, including policymakers, administrators, clinicians, and advocates to engage in decision making appropriate to their local setting. The goal is to facilitate evidence-based policy actions and urgently advance implementation of an integrated approach to reduce breast cancer mortality and improve quality of life.

Resource-stratified implementation of a community-based breast cancer management programme in Peru.

Breast cancer incidence and mortality rates continue to rise in Peru, with related deaths projected to increase from 1208 in 2012, to 2054 in 2030. Despite improvements in national cancer control plans, various barriers to positive breast cancer outcomes remain. Multiorganisational stakeholder collaboration is needed for the development of functional, sustainable early diagnosis, treatment and supportive care programmes with the potential to achieve measurable outcomes. In 2011, PATH, the Peruvian Ministry of Health, the National Cancer Institute in Lima, and the Regional Cancer Institute in Trujillo collaborated to establish the Community-based Program for Breast Health, the aim of which was to improve breast health-care delivery in Peru. A four-step, resource-stratified implementation strategy was used to establish an effective community-based triage programme and a practical early diagnosis scheme within existing multilevel health-care infrastructure. The phased implementation model was initially developed by the Breast Cancer Initiative 2·5: a group of health and non-governmental organisations who collaborate to improve breast cancer outcomes. To date, the Community-based Program for Breast Health has successfully implemented steps 1, 2, and 3 of the Breast Cancer Initiative 2·5 model in Peru, with reports of increased awareness of breast cancer among women, improved capacity for early diagnosis among health workers, and the creation of stronger and more functional linkages between the primary levels (ie, local or community) and higher levels (ie, district, region, and national) of health care. The Community-based Program for Breast Health is a successful example of stakeholder and collaborator involvement-both internal and external to Peru-in the design and implementation of resource-appropriate interventions to increase breast health-care capacity in a middle-income Latin American country.