Dr. Cardoso on the Rationale Behind the Global mBC Vision 2025 Call-to-Action

Fatima Cardoso, MD, coordinator, European School of Oncology Breast Cancer Program, Secretary General, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, director, Breast Unit, Campalimaud Clinical Cancer Center, discusses the rationale behind the Global mBC Vision 2025 Call-to-Action.

The Call-to-Action was developed to improve and extend the lives of patients with advanced and/or metastic breast cancer by the year 2025. It outlines 10 key gaps in patient care, societal support, and scientific investment for this disease.

According to Cardoso, one of the main reasons behind this Call-to-Action, which was detailed in the Global Status of Advanced/Metastatic Breast Cancer 2005-2015 Decade Report, was low epidemiology numbers regarding metastatic disease across the globe. To be able to determine resources to help these patients, Cardoso adds, the population must be known—and initiatives are now being started to find this.

Cardoso says that patients need to be treated in a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates palliative care, psychosocial support, nutrition, and sometimes radiation or surgery.