WILLEMSTAD — The clinic for timely diagnosis of breast- and cervical cancer will be located in the monumental little houses on the Klipstraat next to the Kurá Hulanda museum.
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Emeritus professor Medical practitioner Oncology, Bob Pinedo, will be establishing the Fundashon Prevenshon.
At his farewell from the Vrije Universiteit at the end of 2008, the famous Curaçao cancer specialist had already announced he would remain active. He has moved back to his native island where he is also focusing on screenings.
In the professional journal Medical Contact, Pinedo calls Curaçao a forgotten piece of the Kingdom with regard to prevention. "Of the females falling under the high-risk group for breast- and cervical cancer, only 8 percent are currently requesting a mammography or a smear through the family doctor. This mostly regards Dutch citizens living on Curaçao and already familiar with the screening held in the Netherlands. The rest of the population is simply passed over." As of March, the first calls for preventive check-up will be sent out. The screenings-center will be opening up shorting afterwards.
The clinic will soon be calling all females between the thirty and sixty years of age for the cervical cancer check-up. The calling for a mammography is five years lower than in the Netherlands. "There are no hard figures, but the impression of oncologists is that there are more than average young females here with breast cancer, which is why we lowered the age limit here to 45 years."
Fundashon Prevenshon will soon have lab assistants and one coordinating radiologist. Three other radiologists of the St. Elisabeth Hospital will also view the pictures. In the Netherlands, one radiologist of the VU-medical center functions as backup. "We have the same equipment for digital mammography as in the Netherlands", Pinedo continues in Medical Contact, "so that we can easily exchange data."
The government will be financing the check-ups and the equipment, but Pinedo must arrange financing for the building and other provisions, one way or the other. "Fortunately, the people on Curaçao are very involved. We need not pay rent for the building for the first ten years. Two busses were donated to collect the females and others had donated money."
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