THE ability of Jamaica’s public health sector to ensure early and precise breast cancer diagnosis has been boosted with the commissioning of new state-of-the-art immunohistochemistry equipment at the National Public Health Laboratory on Slipe Pen Road in Kingston.

The equipment, valued at US$419,584.38, was secured under a continuing partnership between the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) and Roche, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

Roche’s investment in the installation, maintenance, and test reagents for the equipment represents 86 per cent of the total cost. The remainder was allocated by the MOHW and will cover the cost of test reagents.

Director of health promotion, public relations and customer care at the National Health Fund Shermaine Robotham, speaking at the official commissioning function for the equipment at the lab on Wednesday, said the technology “marks a major step forward in the further enhancement of breast cancer diagnosis in our country and will support the Ministry of Health and Wellness in efforts to improve breast cancer care in Jamaica”.

Alvaro Soto, general manager, Roche Caribbean, Central America and Venezuela, appearing virtually, commended Jamaica “for being one of the first Caribbean countries to commence local immunohistochemistry and continue this process to ensure precise cancer diagnosis”.

“This milestone, underscores the country’s commitment to enhancing healthcare outcomes… achieving precise and early cancer diagnosis is crucial in the fight against this disease. With this new improvement we are optimistic about the significant improvements in patient care and, above all, patient outcomes,” he stated.

Dr Joye Taylor-Houston, consultant hemato-oncologist at Kingston Public Hospital, in noting the impact of the equipment on the management of patients, said “accurate and early cancer diagnosis is essential in the fight against this disease”.

While noting that IHC can be used in the diagnosis of a wide range of diseases and not just breast cancer, Taylor-Houston said “by improving access to tests, we can enhance patient care and outcomes through early diagnosis therefore reducing the risk of disease occurrence”.

“It assists us, the clinicians, to provide personalised treatment plans, because we can therefore use these results to tailor therapy and obtain maximum efficacy, predict likely response to treatment generally, classify cancers with distinct behaviours and outcomes, and identify cancers with poorer prognosis and therefore we can use targeted therapy where possible to help improve the outcome,” Dr Taylor-Houston told the gathering.

She said use of the technology also makes it possible to avoid “unnecessary or ineffective treatments, thereby minimising side effects for patients”.

“Because they would not be exposed to agents they don’t need to be exposed to as well as economic factors, you won’t be utilising therapies that are not needed,” she pointed out.

“Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and a lot of younger women are being affected; here in Jamaica, a lot of women are the backbone of their households and the society, so effective treatment that will impact them and help to prolong their survival, of course, will have a ripple effect on our society as we can allow these women to remain productive for a much longer period of time,” Dr Taylor-Houston said further.

In the meantime, Juan Cruz, disease area strategy director, Roche Caribbean, Central America and Venezuela, in addressing the function, emphasised that “early diagnosis is crucial”.

“A woman diagnosed with early stage breast cancer has a 90 per cent chance of being alive up to five years after diagnosis, whereas a patient in a metastatic stage has significantly lower survival, and this underscores the importance of early detection and the positive impact of uninterrupted diagnosis and treatment,” he said.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton, delivering the keynote address, in noting that breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths for women and prostate cancer for men, said “it is only fitting that we take the necessary action, we are responsive to providing the support to our women”.

“I am told that one in 21 Jamaican women will be diagnosed with breast cancer. The policy towards early detection has to be the future, and what this machine does is enable the testing to take place,” he said, adding that while the concept of the need for diagnostics is big in the public health system, “we are not where we want to be”.

The health minister, in insisting that having adequate diagnostic equipment within all health facilities is the long-term goal, said maintenance of equipment remains a challenge.

“It is now a policy in public health; we have said to every regional authority that if you buy a piece of equipment, ensure that there is servicing for the life of the equipment. Too often when an equipment goes down we have to wait weeks for the service technician to fly in from Germany or some faraway land and I have been at pains to say – and it is a policy position – that extended servicing or servicing in general does not mean a one-month wait, not in an essential service. The negotiations around purchase, installation and servicing should be time sensitive,” Tufton declared.

The National Public Health Laboratory provides services for clinical and public health and serves as a clinical laboratory for Kingston Public Hospital and Victoria Jubilee Hospital as well as National Reference Lab. It is also a referral laboratory in disease surveillance, vector control, food safety, and environmental health. Services include haematology, clinical chemistry, histopathology, cytopathology, microbiology, immunology, environmental health, and vector research.

On a monthly basis, some 40,000 samples are collected and 200,000 tests conducted at the lab, which has a staff of 250 providing critical diagnoses for Jamaicans.