Survival after breast cancer continues to improve

The favorable figures were published August 30, 2023, by the Flemish Institute for Quality of Care (VIKZ), based on an earlier report by the Federal Knowledge Center for Health Care (KCE) and data from the Cancer Registry Foundation. Survival rates for breast cancer are significantly better when you seek treatment at an accredited breast clinic. Hospitals themselves do not always communicate whether or not they have an accredited breast clinic, it is best for you as a patient to check this yourself. The list of accredited breast clinics can be found here .

Nuance of ranking

Based on the new figures, the VIKZ offers the possibility to check in which hospitals in the Flemish part of the country you, as a breast cancer patient, have the best chances to be alive 5 years after treatment. There was a lot of criticism about that and therefore this requires some nuance. Not all breast cancers are the same and they are not equally distributed among the various centers. Some breast cancer types by themselves have a worse prognosis, others a better one. For example, a hospital that sees many triple-negative breast tumors will score worse, because even with the best possible treatments, this breast cancer type has a poorer prognosis than hormone-sensitive breast cancers. Some cancers have already metastasized at the time of diagnosis; others are in the early stages. This, too, can vary greatly from hospital to hospital. Some hospitals see many more patients from lower socioeconomic classes, and we know these women are less likely to participate in breast cancer screening programs; they have enough other besognes on their minds. If they get breast cancer, they have more risk that the tumor is already bigger at the time it is detected. That affects a hospital's chances of survival and therefore its numbers. One hospital employs many healthcare professionals, and their skills may differ among themselves. By the way, when a breast cancer patient dies within 5 years of treatment, the cause of death may also be something completely different, a car accident, for example, or another cancer unrelated to the original breast cancer. Finally, the statistical method used affects the outcome. Are the figures that were collected all correct, were they properly recorded and were they correctly transmitted by the hospitals? Ranking hospitals with the best breast cancer care, for all these reasons, is no easy task and also depends on factors that have nothing to do with the hospital itself.

That said, turning to an accredited breast clinic remains very important: here you have, on average, a 30% greater chance of survival. Because accredited breast clinics must treat enough breast cancer patients to remain accredited. This is how they build expertise.

Promises

In March 2023, Social Affairs Minister Frank Vandenbroucke promised that breast cancer treatment would henceforth only be reimbursed at an accredited breast clinic. Pink Ribbon enthusiastically reported this in this article. To date, that promise has not been put into practice. On Aug. 30, Flemish public health minister Hilde Crevits also made similar statements. She too is considering how to prioritize licensed breast clinics. Pink Ribbon is keeping its finger on the pulse.

Conference

Pink Ribbon and Europa Donna Belgium are standing up for better quality of care for breast cancer patients. Both organizations welcome the promises made and see to it that they will be fulfilled.

That is why Europa Donna Belgium, supported by Pink Ribbon, organized the conference "Sense or nonsense of accredited breast clinics" on Sept. 30 at the Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels, in the presence of European Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides and Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health Frank Vandenbroucke.

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