In 2006, when Hem Knoll found a lump in her right breast, it
was another tragic turn in a life already shattered by a diagnosis of HIV and the
death of her husband, from whom she had contracted the virus.
The 45-year-old schoolteacher was determined to seek
treatment. During the next year, Knoll endured a heartbreaking ordeal too
common in countries like Cambodia, where a large percentage of people do not
have access to health care. Alone and impoverished, Knoll was repeatedly turned
away by every hospital she visited because of her HIV-positive status. She began to lose hope.
Her fortune changed when she learned about the AmeriCares-sponsored
Breast Cancer Program at the Sihanouk
Hospital Center of HOPE in Phnom Penh. This program offers Cambodia’s only free
treatment and screening program, and it is operated by one of the few hospitals
in the country that offers care to HIV-positive patients.
Doctors immediately removed Knoll’s tumor, initiated a course
of drug therapy that included cancer medication donated by AmeriCares, and
enrolled her in the hospital’s free lifelong HIV treatment program.
Four years later, Knoll remains cancer-free. She makes a
monthly 8-hour journey to receive follow-up care at the hospital, confident
that she will receive highquality care and be treated with respect. She also
has learned to self-screen and regularly examines her healthy breast for early
signs of cancer.
Photo Courtesy of Sihanouk Hospital Center of Hope
Crucial Progress
Brings New Hope
Launched in 2008, the Breast
Cancer Program is a comprehensive initiative designed to raise patient
awareness, improve early detection, and increase survival rates, while at the
same time training and building capacity among local medical
practitioners. These multiple program
components are particularly lifesaving in Cambodia, where an alarming number of
women die each year as a result of breast cancer, often due to lack of
awareness, limited screening opportunities, and the high cost of treatment
In the past three years, the Program has accomplished
several noteworthy achievements, such as providing:
- 4,200
women with Khmer-language educational materials on early detection,
- 430
pathology tests
- 300 diagnostic procedures
- 192
patients with surgical treatment, hormonal therapy and/or palliative care.
In the coming years, AmeriCares has committed to
significantly expand its annual donations of funding and breast cancer
medications with the goal of enabling the Program to further increase treatment
options, patient outreach, and targeted training of physicians and nurses.
“By expanding the program, we are providing the hospital with
vital resources necessary to care for women diagnosed with breast cancer who could
not otherwise afford treatment,” said Dr. Frank Bia, Medical Director for
AmeriCares. “Studies show that education and early detection increase
survival rates – something we hope we are accomplishing by broadening our outreach
efforts.”
