Dr. Jawaher Ansari, Consultant in Medical Oncology at Tawam Hospital, speaks about advances in cancer care, constantly changing medical options, and how healthcare providers must continue to adapt to deliver the highest quality care for patients.
Cancer remains a leading cause of death around the world claiming almost 10 million lives in 2020 alone. As the world’s population gets older and modern life becomes increasingly incompatible with leading a healthy lifestyle, the burden of cancer care continues to mount at an alarming rate. The number of new cancer cases is expected to grow to 27.5 million and number of deaths to 16.3 million by 2040.
The best chance for survival is early detection and responsible screening, which means there is a responsibility on healthcare institutions to promote awareness and facilitate access to care.
At SEHA, we have always been active advocates of early screening and diagnosis from breast cancer to prostate cancer and are focused on delivering the important message to the UAE community that early detection leads to better treatment outcomes. Our healthcare facilities provide top-of-the-line screening services, including physician consultations and diagnostic tests.
Our focus on new technologies and services has seen us partner with EIN Healthcare and Siemens Healthineers to launch mobile mammogram clinics to increase access to breast cancer screenings. Our oncology/hematology department at Tawam Hospital, in Al Ain, provides some of the most advanced treatments and highest standards of care. We provide patients access to the latest immunotherapy treatments that have transformed cancer care by achieving long-term survival rates, and to a wide range of disease-specific targeted therapies helping us to practice precision oncology. We offer innovative radiopharmaceutical therapies that enable targeted delivery of radiation to the tumor while limiting damage to the surrounding normal tissues. These are just some of our groundbreaking efforts to actively support and advance cancer care here in the UAE.
However, despite efforts taken by health authorities around the world, awareness and general knowledge of cancer remains far too low. The unfortunate truth is that despite 30% to 50% of cancers being largely preventable1, many people around the world still struggle to get access to care and resources.
In the UAE, while cancer remains the third leading cause of death, government and private healthcare providers have made significant investments to enhance the quality of care and improve access to treatments. As a result, the UAE remains a step ahead of other nations. At SEHA, we are committed to providing excellent holistic and integrated care to all cancer patients.
SEHA has consistently partnered with the UAE government to uplift the state of cancer care. In 1979, we opened Tawam Hospital as the first oncology center in Emirates, and in 2019, we welcomed patients to Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City (SSMC), a joint-venture partnership between SEHA and Mayo Clinic, which boasts a world-class oncology department.
Given that the treatment and research landscape is constantly evolving, healthcare organizations cannot afford to be complacent and fall behind when it comes continuous training and development of staff. As an industry, we owe it to our patients to provide them with the latest treatment options that offer the best chance of a healthier, happier and cancer-free life. At SEHA, we conduct regular training and staff development programs to ensure that our patients receive the best and most modern medicine and treatments available.
With each passing year, the world’s medical and scientific community continues to push the frontiers of medicine with remarkable new treatments and palliative care options coming online. The pace at which our knowledge of cancer is advancing is quite phenomenal.
As we look to the future, it is expected that progress will be made in oncology at a faster rate than any other disease field, with predictive analytics becoming increasingly essential in treatment. Advances are predicted to include personalized cancer medicines, genetic editing to reprogram immune cells to target cancer cells and creating 3-D printed replica organs to better predict the outcomes of novel oncology treatments.
The huge range of treatment and diagnostic options at doctors’ disposal actually presents a unique challenge when it comes to evaluating the best course of action for individual patients. Personalized medicine, which is fast becoming the standard trend across all practices, holds particular value in oncology where individual patients present with a highly heterogenous disease that has a huge impact on deciding the course of treatment. The ‘one-size fits all’ model is obsolete, and the healthcare industry at large is moving away from it.
As we navigate through an ever-changing and dynamic healthcare ecosystem, cancer care must continue to evolve with it. At SEHA, we are proud to be fully equipped to provide comprehensive care and consultation while remaining up to date and agile in order to meet the changing needs of patients and society.
