Saudi Gazette report

RIYADH — The remarkable progress achieved by Saudi Arabia in the battle against major diseases and irreversible medical conditions was one of the highlights of the recent Pioneers in Medicine conference in Riyadh.

Nearly 30 national and international experts came together at the conference, organized by King Faisal Prize and Alfaisal University in celebration of the 40th anniversary of King Faisal Prize.

One of the areas that made much headway was oncology, the branch of medicine that studies tumors and cancers.

Cancer has been a major public health concern in Saudi Arabia with Riyadh, Eastern Province and Jouf recording the highest incidence in the Kingdom, according to Dr. Shouki Bazarbashi, chairman of Research Ethics Committee at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center.

Dr. Bazarbashi explained that colorectal cancer has been identified as the top cancer among males in Saudi Arabia, accounting for 14.9 percent of the diagnosed cases, while breast cancer is the major cancer among females with 30.1 per cent of the cases.

But there is hope as breakthroughs in cancer treatment are helping bring down mortality rates. The Saudi medical field has embraced game-changing treatment methods such as immune therapy that have shown positive results in clinical trials.

Immune therapy offers new possibilities by manipulating the human body›s own immune cells to recognize and attack their own cancer cells.

Prof. Patrick Walsh, the King Faisal Prize 2007 Medicine laureate, said developments in oncology are helping bring down cancer mortality rates around the world.

A more serious concern is the prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the Kingdom. However, the Saudi medical field has taken proactive measures to counter this threat by establishing cardiac surgical centers that provide high quality cardiac services and perform more than 4,000 cardiac surgical operations yearly, said Dr. Mohammed Al-Fagih, medical superintendent of Dallah Healthcare.

Over the last few decades, the Kingdom has ensured the adoption of the most relevant treatment methods, whether it was the balloon catheter procedure in the 1980s or the use of metal stents in the 1990s or the use of medicine coated stents by 2000, said Prof. Mohammed Fouda, director of King Fahad Cardiac Center.

Minimal invasive techniques in cardiac surgery are not new to Saudi Arabia. Initial steps were taken in this field during the period 1983 to 1985 when the first coronary angioplasty was conducted in the Kingdom, recalled Dr. Muayed Al-Zaibag, chairman of King Abdulaziz Cardiac Center and a medical pioneer, who in the mid 1980s, established the first adult cardiology interventional program in the region. Innovative techniques have made their way into other areas such diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions related to the ear, nose and throat.

Major research has been carried out in the treatment of hearing impairment with the department of ENT at the King Abdulaziz University Hospital emerging as one of the leading hospitals in cochlear implantation in the mid-1990s, said Prof. Siraj Zakzouk, senior ENT consultant at Al-Habib Medical Center, Riyadh. The program is counted among the top 10 programs in the world, he said.

There is hope as breakthroughs in cancer treatment are helping bring down mortality rates. The Saudi medical field has embraced game-changing treatment methods such as immune therapy that have shown positive results in clinical trials.