Korean Breast Cancer Society said the nation has achieved one of the world’s best breast cancer treatments and vowed to improve the quality of life of Korean patients.
With the slogan, “Go Beyond Cure of Breast Cancer,” the society is holding Global Breast Cancer Conference 2019 at Songdo Convensia Convention Center in Incheon through Saturday.
KBCS President Park Sung-hwan said in a news conference on Thursday said the five-year survival rate of breast cancer patients in Korea hit 92.7 percent according to the 2016 government statistics of cancer. The rate is “the world’s highest,” he said.
“The survival rate of 92.7 percent still tells us that the remaining about 10 percent has not been cured. Our society will not become complacent and keep marching on until we finally conquer breast cancer,” Park said.
Lee Jeong-eon, a professor at the breast division under the surgery department at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, noted that unlike in Western countries, over 84 percent of Korean women diagnosed with breast cancer are aged 65 or less. “This means that new breast cancer patients in Korea are mostly working-age population,” he said.
KBCS emphasized that it would pay more attention to the patients’ life, going beyond from cure. As the cured people have to return to their healthy lives as a “cancer survivor,” not as a “patient,” physicians should help patients return to work, the society said.
Global Breast Cancer Conference 2019 included “survivorship session.”
During the session, speakers will talk about breast cancer survivors’ depression, sense of self-efficacy, and the complex relations between the awareness of the disease and fear of progression; understanding the causes of stress in breast cancer patients and survivors; sleep and depression; and the two essential aspects in psycho-oncology.
Global Breast Cancer Conference 2019 also provides a networking opportunity for Asian breast cancer researchers. Senior experts in Asia will attend the “Asian Breast Cancer Networking (ABCN) Business Meeting” as well.
The ABCN Meeting will gather 63 experts from 15 countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam to discuss cooperation for clinical studies.
There will also be the first “Sino-Korean Joint Meeting,” in collaboration with Beijing Breast Disease Society (BBDS).