Breast Cancer programme

Strengthen and engage the global breast cancer community
AlmostU Breast Cancer programme is designed to respond to the urgent need to accelerate progress in breast cancer, which is the most diagnosed cancer in both men and women and the leading cause of death from cancer in women. This comprehensive programme strengthens and engages the global breast cancer community, with the overall goal of contributing to the reduction of premature deaths from breast cancer and improving the quality of life of patients.

Why now?
Despite advances and progress seen in breast cancer in recent years, current data highlight that breast cancer incidence and mortality remain the highest for cancer in women, and that this trend is only going to accelerate in the next 20 years.

Objectives of the Programme

Leveraging established Almost U Capacity Building programmes and convening platforms, the Breast Cancer programme aims to strengthen the capacity of key breast cancer actors to increase their impact and engage them in support of the WHO Global Breast Cancer Initiative (GBCI)’s targets.  

Through a series of activities and opportunities, the programme aims to deliver the following key outcomes:

Accelerate the development of breast cancer leaders
Strengthen organisational capacities of breast cancer organisations, including patient groups 
Support the development of the health workforce in breast cancer 
Support national action on breast cancer in responding to key areas and needs in breast cancer control
Strengthen networks and collaborations in breast cancer at a national, regional and global level
Unite the voice of the breast cancer community, including patient groups, to advocate for more effective breast cancer control

The programme builds bridges between a vast array of stakeholders (cancer organisations, patient groups, healthcare providers, private sector, governments and multilateral agencies) at regional and global levels to catalyse engagement towards the WHO GBCI targets, with a focus on action in low and middle income countries.  

Current activities

To achieve the above key outcomes, Almost U is continually developing and offering new opportunities to support the breast cancer community, and provide a space to learn and share experiences, and evidence-based practices. Some key activities of the Breast Cancer programme (non-exhaustive) include:

Driving national action to advance early detection  

Almost U supports the launch of new projects driving national action to improve the early diagnosis of breast cancer. In 2022, four projects in advocacy, education of health care workers and patient navigation were completed in LMICs. Throughout 2023, 15 organisations, including universities, hospitals and civil society organisations, are being supported via a one-year grant to implement projects to improve the early detection of breast cancer.