Taking Sides with Ladies – Supporting a Help-Center for Women with Breast Cancer in Rome
Project location: Italy, Rome
Project start date: October 2011 -
Project end date: October 2013
Project number: 2011-21
Beneficiary: ROMA DONNA Associazione contro il cancro della mammella Onlus
Breast cancer is the first cause of death due to cancer among women. The disease is increasing and so far the only real device available against this type of cancer is early diagnosis. In early diagnosis, there are greater chances of recovery and less outcome of surgery.
In recent years much progress has been made:
- awareness of women from the media campaigns and developments in technology have made possible the detection of lesions of a few millimeters in diameter;
- the introduction of the technique of sentinel lymph node can avoid , if possible, dissection lymphadenectomy and its side effects
- the introduction of new techniques of oncoplastic surgery allow to obtain radical surgery while maintaining an acceptable appearance and allow patients to live more happily with their disease
- modern chemotherapy allows a normal life during treatment
- the constant efforts of some doctors who have dedicated their working lives to the fight against cancer has led to continuous improvement of results.
All this has allowed the society to alleviate the suffering of most women that face this difficult test and can continue to work or care for their family, even under therapy.
Over the past 15 years, especially in the U.S.A, the number of hospital days of hospitalization after surgery for breast cancer is decreasing. Unfortunately in Italy a long hospitalization is generally accepted due to the fact that preoperative tests are performed in-patient treatment and they are discharged after drainage removal.
At the Territorial Medicine Unit surgeries are performed with local anesthesia for benign lesions or suspected breast cancer recurrence and malignant lesions in patients who had undergone lymphadenectomy. The medical staff recently started to perform interventions for small malignant lesions in highly selected patients under local anesthesia. The results are good, even for the satisfaction of the patients that in this way can pass the convalescing time at home with their family, but especially for the fact that they live the disease in a less dramatic way.
The objectives of the project "Taking sides with the ladies" is to strengthen the Center:
1) Renovate (innovate) the diagnostic devices;
2) Grant partnership for young female-doctors who want to expand and deepen knowledge about the breast;
3) Organizing scientific meetings with all the specialists in the field: general practitioners, oncologists, surgeons, radiologists, radiotherapists, pathologists to share their experiences on the breast and then to create an interdisciplinary network that is able to meet all the demands of the patients to ensure that their battle against breast cancer may benefit of all the innovations in science.
The main objectives of the project "Taking side's for the ladies" are primarily to accommodate daily at the Centre more patients and to offer them the best services for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. In order to do that it is necessary to buy the following devices:
-Gamma probe
-Hood for the chemotherapy preparation
-Staining of slides for cytology
-Digital mammography with stereotactic
-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
Having received a grant from the Nando Peretti Foundation, ROMA DONNA Onlus will be able to continue offering the service to a growing number of women and will have the opportunity to contact the center and find highly skilled medical and paramedical personnel and advanced diagnostic equipment.
