Improving breast cancer diagnosis and care in remote and low resource communities, with Dr. Lawrence Shulman

Did you ever think you’d end up working in Africa?

Neither did Dr. Lawrence Shulman. But then we never had Paul Farmer as our intern. Dr. Shulman – an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer – did.

Farmer, if you don’t know, is the American anthropologist and doctor who in 1987 co-founded Partners in Health, an international non-profit that, in its own words, brings “health care to the world’s poorest families.” That means in places like Haiti and Rwanda.

Which is why some eight years ago, Shulman found himself in Rwanda, as he wrote, walking “through hospital wards filled with patients with advanced cancers, who had never had a biopsy or diagnosis, and had no options for treatment.” He continued: “I knew that many of these patients would survive if they had access to the types of treatments available in the United States, and I was determined to help bring these treatment options to patients in Rwanda.”

And that’s what Shulman has done. He has helped establish cancer programs there and in Haiti, and now has branched out to Botswana – places where, historically, because of delayed and late-stage breast cancer diagnoses, the chance for a successful outcome was greatly diminished.

Shulman and colleagues have now trained nearly 200 rural health center nurses in clinical breast exams and evaluation, nearly 2000 community health workers in the basics of breast awareness and patient education, and multiple district hospital clinicians in breast ultrasound. As you’ll hear, the work is remarkable, and the results outstanding.

More on Shulman: He is Deputy Director for Clinical Services, and Director, Center for Global Cancer Medicine in the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn. He is the former Chair of American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Quality of Care Committee, and currently is a member of ASCO’s Global Oncology Leadership Task Force and International Affairs Committee.