GLOBAL PRESENCE, LOCAL EXPERTISE
Early detection is extremely important for managing cancer especially in developing countries.
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We advise national and international missions on mass screening and diagnosis to detect early stage cancer.
Our Breast cancer screening is a unique Mobile Project, that uses Artificial Intelligence and latest technologies to investigate breast cancer amongst large sections of population in rural and semi-rural areas at their doorsteps.
Since the late 1980s, organised breast mammography screening programmes have been introduced in more and more countries across the world, based on the results of 8 large randomised trials. The aim of mammography screening is to detect breast cancer as early as possible, primarily in order to reduce the number of breast cancer deaths but also to reduce the severity of the disease and the use of heavy cancer treatments (and associated anxiety).
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These programmes have always used a “one size fits all” strategy whereby women in a target age group (typically between 50-69 years old) are invited for a mammogram (2 incidences bilateral x-ray taken of their breast) every 2 or 3 years. This approach has demonstrated benefits (reduction of breast cancer specific mortality by 20%). However, it also comes with certain side effects, such as false positive findings, overdiagnosis and overtreatment – meaning treatment of indolent cancers (ones that would never have caused problems during a woman’s lifetime because they evolve very slowly), and a small lifetime risk of radiation-induced cancer. Furthermore, the current mammography screening’s sensitivity is not perfect; and the mortality impact not as high as could be expected.
A promising approach to improve mammography screening is personalized, individual risk-based screening.
In the current strategy, all invited women are treated the same. But women are not all the same: each woman has her own individual risk of developing breast cancer, depending on many factors like genetic factors, lifestyle, or hormonal exposure.
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Recent scientific advances have largely improved our understanding of breast cancer genetics and other risk factors. We now have accurate risk assessment tools and sufficient knowledge to investigate the advantages of using a new screening approach based on individual risk estimation of breast cancer: this is the goal of our Breast Screening initiative.