Under the patronage of His Excellency the President of Imam Abdulrahman bin Faisal University, Prof. Abdullah bin Muhammad Al-Rubaish, King Fahad Hospital of the University (KFHU) organized a breast cancer awareness campaign entitled “Your awareness protects .. your examination prevents” at Khobar City Walk. It was arranged by the Hospital’s Surgery Department, in cooperation with the Health Awareness Unit, the Family and Community Medicine Department, the Medical Laboratory Department, and the Radiology Department. The campaign was launched by the hospital Director General, Prof. Muhammad Al-Shahrani, on Friday, October 27, 2023, and it was attended by the Director of Medical Services at the hospital, Dr. Majid Al-Abdali, the Director General of the Public Relations and Media, Dr. Tufail Al-Yousef, the Head of the breast cancer awareness campaign, Dr. Iman Al-Shammari, and a group of departments Heads and employees of the University Hospital in Al-Khobar.
Dr. Al-Shahrani stressed on the importance of October as it is the breast cancer awareness month worldwide, and he added that international studies have proven that breast cancer is the most common cancer among females around the world, and in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia the number of women suffering from breast cancer makes it occupy the first place among other types of cancers. From this standpoint, we work at KFHU, in cooperation with community agencies, to implement many activities and events that aim at encouraging women to undergo mammogram breast cancer screening to be able to detect tumors at early stages before the appearance of the symptoms and to provide all the necessary support to raise awareness of its danger.
For her part, Dr. Iman Al-Shammari explained that the annual breast cancer early detection campaign, launched this year with the slogan “Your awareness protects .. your examination prevents,” stressed on the importance of spreading community awareness of breast cancer early detection in the Eastern province. Thus, the awareness campaign included educational booths arranged with the participation of several departments from KFHU as well as the Family and Community Medicine Center with the participation of 50 doctors, and several volunteers.
They introduced the elements that can reduce the incidence of breast cancer and prevent it and they also introduced facts about early detection of breast cancer, and its importance in helping to treat the disease and deal with it, in addition to providing a mammogram screening car for women. We work in cooperation with all the departments in the hospitals on early detection with the mammogram and the cases that were discovered from the Center for Family and Community Medicine or in the university hospital clinics during this year reached around 300 cases of cancerous tumors, excluding benign tumors which are followed up with a treatment plan and an annual follow up in cooperation with the Department of Surgery and the Center for Family and Community Medicine. Finally, Dr. Al-Shammari mentioned that they received 500 cases for mammogram breast cancer screening during this October.
