Patterns of care for women with breast cancer in Morocco: an assessment of breast cancer diagnosis, management, and survival in two leading oncology centres

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has published Patterns of care for women with breast cancer in Morocco: an assessment of breast cancer diagnosis, management, and survival in two leading oncology centres on the eve of the launch of the Global Breast Cancer Initiative by the World Health Organization (WHO).

This publication summarizes the outcomes of a patterns-of-care study implemented by IARC in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom of Morocco and the Lalla Salma Foundation for Cancer Prevention and Treatment, to assess how far state-of-the-art cancer diagnostics and therapy have been disseminated into routine oncology practice in Morocco.

The study involved more than 2000 patients with breast cancer and documented the changing patterns of care over a decade, from 2008 to 2017, including temporal variations in breast cancer characteristics, the level of improvement in access to cancer diagnosis and treatment over time, the variations in practices related to breast cancer treatment, and the time trend of disease-free survival for these patients.

This study was conducted retrospectively at the two largest publicly funded oncology centres in Morocco: Centre Mohammed VI pour le traitement des cancers in Casablanca and Institut National d’Oncologie Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah in Rabat.

The findings highlight the improvements in breast cancer care that occurred in Morocco as a result of pragmatic policies and systematic planning by the Moroccan Ministry of Health. Recommendations for strengthening breast cancer care in Morocco are also included in the publication. Similar patterns-of-care studies should be implemented in all countries, to enable more informed and realistic cancer control planning.

Dr Partha Basu, Deputy Head of the Early Detection, Prevention, and Infections Branch at IARC, explains the main findings of the study in a new video.

Read Patterns of care for women with breast cancer in Morocco: an assessment of breast cancer diagnosis, management, and survival in two leading oncology centres 

Watch the video