Breast Cancer Screening

The project is aimed at the development of a Breast Cancer High Risk Out patient Clinic in the town of Edirne, Turkiye. The partners in this Global Grant are The Rotary Club of Edirne, District 2420, Turkiye and Rotary Club La Valette, District 21210, Malta and Trakya Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi ( Trakya University

Faculty of Medicine), Balkan Yerleşkesi Edirne Turkiye, Districts 7120 and 2041, that will also be providing designated funds as well as Rotary Club Erenkoy, Istanbul, Turkiye and the E-Club of Turkiye.

The project has a total budget of 42,000 USD.

Main objective is to establish an out-patient clinic within The Trakya University Medical Faculty Hospital to specialise on high-risk potential and actual breast cancer patients, to diagnose, stratify, catalogue, investigate and keep track of such people who have a high risk of developing breast cancer. The clinic will be within the Trakya University Hospital, will be staffed by the hospital, and is led by an established breast cancer surgeon and specialist.

Whereas Trakya University Medical faculty Hospital has a clinic for breast cancer surgery, there is no High-Risk Breast Cancer Out-patient clinic in the region. There are a few such out-patient clinics in other parts of Turkey, but none in the Trakya region, and even in nearby areas of Bulgaria. There are 2 million people living in the nearby regions.

Breast cancer is the most frequent malignancy of women and most frequent cause of death due to cancer among female populations: 1 of 8 women will face breast cancer in their entire lives. Over 2.000.000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 600.000 women die due to breast cancer annually. Unfortunately, the incidence of breast cancer is rising every year and the projection of health care providers is an expectation of a 40% increase in Turkiye in the next 20 years.

10% of breast cancer is related with breast cancer gene mutations and 30% of breast cancer may be prevented with lifestyle changes including prevention of obesity, limitation of alcohol intake, promoting a physically active lifestyle, limitation of exogen hormone usage, and diet regulation.

The main goal and the benefit of “High Risk Out-patient Clinic for Breast Diseases” is to create awareness, public education, risk analysis of women for breast cancer, risk stratification of women with genetic mutations, to educate risky but healthy women for lifestyle modifications, to serve an appropriate treatment to high-risk breast cancer patients and to use breast health sources in an appropriate manner. High Risk Out-patient Clinic for Breast Diseases is a kind of centre which organize women’s breast health and breast cancer patients’ treatment to have a clear, direct, and appropriate breast health care.