By Bogda Koczwara and Carolyn Taylor
From 24th till 26th of August 2023, the ancient city Hue in Vietnam was the site of the 7th Annual South East Asia Breast Cancer Symposium (SEABCS), the unique gathering of patient advocates, researchers, clinicians and policy makers representing the ASEAN countries. The meeting, spearheaded by MASCC member and the founder of Global Focus on Cancer, Carolyn Taylor, has been taking place each year since 2016 and in 2023 returned to its original location.
This year, for the first time the meeting was supported by MASCC, in addition to other professional organizations (ASCO, WHO, IARC) and industry support. Prof Bogda Koczwara attended the meeting and gave presentations on cardiotoxicity, survivorship care in Indo-Pacific and participated in the multidisciplinary tumor board and a scientific writing session. She also shared with the attendees information about MASCC along with an invitation to join the organization.
With sessions focusing on practical examples of patient support, peer support and advocacy as well as workshops for health care providers on supportive care nursing skills, scientific writing and advocacy development, there was much learning going on but the most moving sessions were those where cancer survivors themselves shared stories on how they support patients and fill service gaps through programs that promote education, awareness and support, and advocate for investment for people affected by cancer.
Unlike in high-resource countries, screening programs are not routinely available across the region resulting in poorer survival rates, and a significant number of patients developing cancer recurrences. Financial toxicity is a common problem given limited access to treatment as well as stigma surrounding a cancer diagnosis. But even in this challenging setting, there were examples of successful, sustained and effective advocacy. These included patient supports in the political conflict ravaged Myanmar, patient education and screening programs in the Philippines, peer-to-peer support programs in Vietnam, and many others. These cancer survivors were fearless, proud and having a tremendous impact in their countries.
As MASCC develops its patient partner initiative, there is much to learn from SEABCS seven years of work in the region and much that MASCC members could contribute to. If you want to know more about the meeting please contact Carolyn Taylor, MASCC member whose vision and drive is behind SEABCS.
To learn more about SEABCS see seabcs2023.com
To learn more about Global Focus on Cancer see Global Focus on Cancer
For a video recording re MASCC see How MASCC can help in Asia – ecancer
