It was patronized by Eastern Province Gov. Prince Muhammad bin Fahd and organized by the Saudi Cancer Foundation in cooperation with King Fahd Specialist Hospital-Dammam, American Society of Clinical Oncology and Roswell Park Cancer Institute.
Prominent among those who attended were Abdulaziz Al-Turki, chairman of the Saudi Cancer Foundation; Dr. Douglas W. Blayney, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology; Dr. Youcef M. Rustum, deputy director of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute; and about 85 local and international specialists and doctors. During the conference many workshops and sessions took place.
“The conference discussed breakthrough treatments in surgery and medication for the three biggest types of cancer which are colon, lung, and breast cancer. We hope at the end of this conference we have research projects that bring together those cancer centers from the United States and their counterparts in Saudi Arabia,” said Dr. Hafaz Al-Halawani, consultant in medical oncology and hematology at the KFSH. He was also chairman of the conference.
Dr. Fatima Al-Melhim, chairperson of the radiology department at the KFSH, said the common type of cancer among Saudi women is breast cancer. For Saudi men it is colon cancer and for children it is leukemia.
“The highest percentage of breast cancer in the Kingdom is in the Eastern Province,” she said. “It is 26 percent.”
“The prognosis of breast cancer depends on the stage of diagnosis. Most women who are in the first and second stages of diagnosis respond very well to treatment,” said Al-Melhim.
