Sunil Verma: We need to do more. We can do more.

Sunil Verma, Global Head of Oncology of Medical AstraZeneca, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Everything is bigger in Texas and the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposia (SABCS) is no exception!

It has been wonderful to be part of the SABCS23 meeting this week. It is so inspiring to be together with so many people who share the same passion and commitment to improving outcomes for people diagnosed with breast cancer.

In recent years, we have achieved so much in our unrelenting quest to improve outcomes in breast cancer, but we still have more work to do. Breast cancer still accounts for 685,000 deaths per year – and this number is growing. We need to do more. We can do more.

Over the past two decades at SABCS, I have seen many advances and so much hope coming from the research being unveiled at this congress. We do it in service of the patients and hoping to bring new hope and better outcomes.

At this year’s meeting, I had the opportunity to learn more on areas of unmet need and also hear of the great work that is being led by Stacy Lewis from the Young Survival Coalition and Victoria Wolodzko Smart from Susan G. Komen.

We had an insightful discussion around their priorities and ways we can collaborate, and they provided four key insights that I encourage you to consider:

– Listening to and incorporating the perspectives and voice of patients into everything we do is critical.
– Breast cancer doesn’t just impact those who are diagnosed – it also affects their families, their friends and society as a whole.
– No one is ever too young to be diagnosed with breast cancer – and when patients are diagnosed at a young age when their life is just starting, before they may have found their life partner, before they may have thought about having kids or before they have even come close to reaching their career goals – their needs are different.
– Patient navigation is critical to the future of breast cancer care. As Victoria noted ‘Patient navigation is the next mammogram’ – everyone at risk could benefit from it. Evidence has shown that patients do better when they have access to patient navigation services. That’s why finding ways to integrate patient navigation into breast cancer policy is critical.

I am honored to be part of such an amazing breast cancer community, and I am excited to see how these conversations at SABCS continue to improve outcomes for patients.”

Source: Sunil Verma/LinkedIn