World conference on breast cancer opens in Ottawa
Date: July 27, 1999
Time: 3:20 pm
More than 1000 participants from 60 countries gathered in Ottawa today to begin a week-long meeting that will focus on a host of activities surrounding breast cancer.
The conference seeks to build and strengthen international networks concerned with breast cancer, to educate and share information on all aspects of the disease, and to coordinate global action to eradicate the disease. The conference, which runs until Saturday, is a follow-up to the first event, held 2 years ago in Kingston, Ont.
"Typically, conferences on breast cancer focus on the medical community," conference president Laurene Clark told eCMAJ Today in an interview this afternoon. "We see this conference as an opportunity to raise awareness and include broader input from survivors, support groups and many others."
"We want to continue to focus on the voices of those affected by the disease as well as hear and talk about progress," she added. "While we aren't able to solve every problem, we are able to share information, become better educated and take action to eradicate breast cancer."
Clark said one goal of the conference is to share the comparative wealth of information and resources that North America has concerning breast cancer with the rest of the world.
"Building and promoting international dialogue is extremely important because we here in North America often forget that when we talk about treatments and screening programs we have the best to offer," said Clark. "Many countries are 30 years or more behind when it comes to the detection and treatment of breast cancer."
The conference includes a dizzying array of medical experts, researchers, support groups, advocates, survivors and other presenters. Many of them focus primarily on increasing awareness and education about breast cancer.
"One of the most difficult things about breast cancer is that women don't learn about the disease until they are diagnosed with it," added Clark, who battled breast cancer herself. "Then they have to learn about it while at the same time being faced with very difficult decisions."
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