Breast cancer is the most common cancer globally with around 2.3 million new cases every year. It represents one in eight cancer cases in both sexes and a quarter of all cancers in women with 70% of the mortality occurring in resource-constrained settings. Health system barriers and patient level factors including fear, stigma and low levels of awareness and knowledge are among key factors contributing to low uptake of early detection services, which result in late-stage diagnoses and low survival rates. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI) in 2021 and the GBCI implementation framework in March 2023 aimed at reducing age-standardised mortality rates by 2.5% per year through three key pillars of action: health promotion for early detection, timely diagnosis; and comprehensive breast cancer management to save 2.5 million lives by 2040. 

Patient navigation has been recognised to improve early detection, timely diagnosis, comprehensive treatment for breast cancer. On 15^th October 2024, during the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the WHO-GBCI will launch a technical brief on ‘Patient Navigation for the Early Detection, Diagnosis, Treatment of Breast Cancer’ and discuss modalities for its dissemination and implementation. The Global Breast Cancer Initiative Knowledge Action Portal will also be launched during this event with supporting resources.

Objectives of the webinar are to:

1. create awareness on the Global Breast Cancer Initiative and introduce patient navigation as a strategy to improve uptake of breast cancer screening and early diagnostic services;
2. provide an opportunity for knowledge sharing and dissemination of information and to encourage collaboration to reduce breast cancer mortality;
3. build advocacy for country adoption of the Global Breast Cancer Initiative and prioritize its implementation within national health systems to improve breast cancer outcomes;
4. launch the Technical Brief on Patient Navigation for Early Detection, Diagnosis and Treatment of Breast Cancer. 

REGISTER HERE