Breast Care International (BCI) and Peace and Love Hospitals, Ghana joined the research worlds of public health, medicine and advocacy with research scientists in biology, engineering, nanotechnology and nutrition to discuss models for primary prevention of breast cancer at a global symposium in October at Purdue University, USA.
The Oct. 10-12 event, offered annually as part of the Purdue-led International Breast Cancer and Nutrition (IBCN) Project, was titled "Models for Breast Cancer Prevention: From Innovation to Action."
The main symposium was preceded by a two-day think tank meeting at the Turkey Run Resort in Indiana. Experts from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa were featured in biology, epidemiology, medicine, nutrition, communication, education and public policy.
This year's symposium also included researchers, policymakers and public health representatives from Ghana, Canada, Chile, Lebanon, Netherlands, Qatar, Uruguay and other counties. Ghana was represented by a big team comprising the following: Prof Seth Wiafe, Prof Mrs Frimpong, Sylvia Abrah, Emma Abaidoo.
Chaired by Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai, President and CEO of BCI and Peace and Love Hospitals, Status of Breast Cancer Prevention from Around the World was discussed on Wednesday, Oct. 10.
Keynote speaker for this session was Leslie Reinlib of the National Institute of Environmental Health Science at the National Institute of Health. Other speakers included Philippe Kadhel of the University Teaching Hospital, Pointe-A-Pitre (Guadeloupe), France; Meghan McDonough of the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Purdue; Tam Truong Donnelly of the University of Calgary, Qatar; and
Emma Brew Abaidoo of Peace and Love Hospital and Breast Cancer International, Kumasi, Ghana.
"At the heart of any advancement in medical research is a better understanding of how a disease starts and grows. Discussing models necessary for research on primary prevention and implantation of the results is an essential tool to help researchers from many different disciplines in that understanding," said event co-organizer Sophie Lelivre, an associate professor of basic medical sciences in Purdue's College of Veterinary Medicine and associate director of Discovery Groups for the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research.
The IBCN, involving the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer, is focusing initial efforts on the United States and Ghana as well as France, Japan, Uruguay, and Lebanon.
Through the project launched in 2010, each country has a dedicated research team focused on a number of milestones and allows scientists to study worldwide diversity in breast cancer rates, dietary patterns, and cultural contexts. These teams were assembled thanks to a 2010-11 project sponsored by the Purdue Global Policy Research Institute.
The 2011 IBCN conference was in France, and Purdue hosted the inaugural conference in October 2010. Lebanon is scheduled to host the conference in 2013.
Dr. Beatrice Wiafe Addai emphasized that this project is indeed bringing together experts in nutrition, basic medical sciences, statistics, cancer epidemiology, communication, public policy, economics, health law, anthropology and medicine to study a variety of factors such as how cellular mechanisms in breast cancer development link to diet, as well as the role public policy plays in a population's available food source and disease prevention.
For additional information, visit the IBCN website at http://www.purdue.edu/discoverypark/oncological/ibcn/
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