Roche drive grapples with breast cancer

Inge Kusuma, head of Vietnam Hoffmann-La Roche’s Representative Office, talked to Hoang Anh about the campaign’s positive results.

Roche has supported a variety of community breast cancer campaign activities in the region. Does We Care For Her run in other countries?

We Care For Her is expected to run between 2013-2015 to increase public awareness and support women in the early detection, prevention and treatment of breast cancer. The campaign is part of Roche’s long-term breast cancer prevention campaign and is only based in Vietnam. Roche, Bright Future Fund and the Ministry of Health will co-operate with specialist cancer hospitals in Vietnam to conduct free clinical examinations in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue, Danang and Can Tho. The project also aims to help train doctors and nurses in breast cancer prevention, especially for type HER2-Positive breast cancer, the most aggressive form of the disease.

What specific activities will take place in the second phase?

Activities to educate and improve public awareness are the first priorities. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. In Vietnam, 12,000 new cases are diagnosed annually, 25 per cent of which are HER2-Positive. However, due to low awareness, patients get treatment at too late a stage. With current medical advances, half of cancer patients could be saved with specialist treatment. The project will sponsor free clinical examinations. This activity will start in April in Ho Chi Minh City and in other cities after that. In parallel, a range of training programmes for healthcare professionals in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment will be carried out.

The project has called on the participation of other stakeholders like the business community and celebrities to participate as well, how has this worked out?

We want to spread the message that “Together we care for our beloved women with understanding. Together we can fight back the breast cancer thanks to the increased awareness about breast cancer.” We’re delighted that corporations such as Samsung, FPT, Vietnam Airlines, Jetstar Pacific among others enthusiastically joined our Pink Balloon event on March 8. The good news is that these corporations will join future events, but also many others have expressed willingness to participate. From this perspective, we’ll consider how to engage with these potential partners and leverage their participation.

What are the most significant outcomes you expect to draw from We Care For Her?

There’s a high chance of eradicating the cancer when detected early. We believe that increasing understanding about breast cancer is the best prevention and really hope that breast cancer is no longer a big problem to women and they can live a happier life with such knowledge enhancement and detection activities for early detection and treatment.