Speeding up Breast Cancer Diagnosis in Egypt: GE Healthcare, Gustave Roussy and the Egypt Ministry of Health Partner to Create Rapid Breast Cancer Diagnosis Clinics

Cairo  – GE Healthcare, Gustave Roussy and the Egypt Ministry of Health (MOH) signed a preliminary agreement leveraging Gustave Roussy’s One Stop Breast Cancer diagnostics program to increase the speed and the accuracy of breast cancer diagnosis in Egypt.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in Egypt, accounting for 35% of cancers with around 22,000 cases diagnosis in 2020[1]. In July 2019, The President of Egyptian Republic Abdelfattah Al Sissi launched the Women’s Health Initiative, a program to improve early detection of breast cancer, hypertension, diabetes, osteoporosis, and heart disease. The initiative led by the Executive Director Dr. Ahmad Morsi and aimed at nearly 30 million women above the age of 18, has already been rolled out to 21 million women.

This new collaboration between GE Healthcare and Gustave Roussy, under the patronage of the Egyptian MOH, aims to accelerate this initiative for early detection and treatment planning of breast cancer through the creation of rapid breast cancer diagnosis clinics in Egypt.

Gustave Roussy, a pioneer in “one-stop diagnosis”, has been offering a dedicated reception service since 2004, enabling a diagnosis to be made within a day in most cases of a breast anomaly detected in the city. This multidisciplinary service brings together professionals from different specialities, all experts in breast cancer (radiologists, surgeons, pathologists, oncologists, nurses, technicians, etc.).

This unique pathway demonstrates that coordination between different specialties, processes and innovative technologies can achieve excellent clinical and operational results and decrease the financial cost of breast cancer treatment. Since 2004, more than 21,000 women have participated in the one-stop rapid diagnosis clinic at Gustave Roussy, and more than 80% of them were able to obtain results and treatment planning if needed the same day.

As part of the collaboration, Gustave Roussy will train clinical and administrative staff, and support the implementation of standard operating procedures and clinical algorithms to help set up One Stop Clinics in the country. The aim of this collaboration is to improve the speed and quality of diagnosis and to reduce the costs of care, from consultation and diagnosis to treatment.

“We appreciate GE’s support for the One Stop Clinics, which will contribute to high-efficiency, faster diagnoses – what usually takes weeks can happen within a matter of hours. This will improve treatment response indicators and work toward our goal of saving lives.” Said Dr Khaled Mujahid, spokesperson of the Ministry of Health & Population in Egypt in a statement.

“We are extremely proud that Egypt has chosen to deploy to women the one-stop diagnosis concept invented at Gustave Roussy. Women’s health and the early diagnosis of cancer are causes that mobilize us and for which we deploy a lot of energy in order to develop new solutions. We are convinced that the hope of curing cancer in the 21st century lies largely in the fields of personalized prevention and rapid diagnosis,” commented Prof. Fabrice Barlesi, CEO of Gustave Roussy.

“GE Healthcare is a long-term partner in supporting the development of Egypt’s healthcare infrastructure and delivering training for healthcare professionals. Our partnership with the Ministry of Health to speed up breast cancer diagnostics is a true milestone in the delivery of world-class healthcare in the country. These new solutions are designed to expand capacity and improve quality and speed for diagnosis and help meet the needs of community.” said Naël Dabbagh, general manager for the Middle East, North East Africa, Turkey and Central Asia at ‎GE Healthcare.

GE Healthcare’s comprehensive diagnostic imaging and monitoring portfolio can be deployed throughout the patient’s cancer or cardiac journey, from initial screening and diagnosis, through therapy guidance facilitating minimally invasive treatment, to monitoring patient progress.