Nationwide breast-cancer registry to facilitate disease treatment

The Marigold Foundation will be setting up a breast cancer registry that will be collecting data from patients fighting the disease, said chairman Michelle Muscat.

The registry will allow health authorities to better monitor the disease and how it responds to the different treatments prescribed by physicians, she said.

Speaking at a press conference held on the eve of the foundation’s third anniversary, Muscat said that over three years, through its Pink October campaign, the foundation had managed to elevate breast-cancer awareness onto a national platform.

Muscat said that through the last campaign, the foundation had collected €117,000 which it will be using to purchase a portable x-ray system used to image tissue specimens from biopsies taken from women with breast cancer.  

Social solidarity minister Michael Farrugia stressed the importance of early detection of the disease. “The most important thing is to be aware of what tests one can do. It is important to treat these things as early as possible,” said Farrugia.

He added that even when caught early, removal of the cancer is not always straightforward. “The new machine is being bought to allow surgeons to remove cancer completely while removing as little tissue from the surrounding as possible,” he said.

In addition to the obvious negative effect on patients, Farrugia said that there were also social repercussions to cancer. He said that for every life lost to the disease, there was a family left behind, and that this indirectly left a negative impact on society.