This year, MAScIR falls this October, the International Month of Mobilization Against Breast Cancer, to engage with health professionals and civil society in the fight against this scourge, notes a press release from the foundation.
Indeed, despite the existence of cost-effective treatment with improved cost thanks to the commercialization of biosimilars, the time and cost of diagnosis still present obstacles to early and adequate therapeutic management of the disease. The same source continues.
“Based on this observation and leveraging their more than ten years of experience in the development of diagnostic kits, based primarily on molecular techniques, the MAScIR Foundation teams have developed and bio-certified in Morocco and France., the first 100% Moroccan molecular diagnostic test for breast cancer,” says MAScIr .
This innovative assay, the press release continues, allows the diagnosis and measurement of the mRNA that encodes the HER2 protein using RT-qPCR technology. This diagnosis and quantification allows for the determination of the type of cancer detected (HER2 status), an essential step in making an appropriate treatment decision.
It is noted that this test has obtained a registration and production license issued by the Ministry of Health after studies that proved its accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and speed of availability of results.
By producing these tests, MAScIR aims to contribute to the health security of the Kingdom. This measure is thus fully in line with national strategies to popularize medical coverage, perfect technologies, manufacture health products and contribute to continental public health strategies.
In Morocco, one in eight women is at risk of developing breast cancer in her lifetime. With approximately 10,500 women diagnosed each year, Morocco is particularly concerned about this pathology, which is characterized by the highest rate of all cancers nationally, ie 36% of cancers and 28% of deaths due to cancers in women. The woman remembers the press release.
Recognizing the basic issues, Morocco is leading the fight against this type of cancer within the framework of its public health policies. To this end, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Health has been implementing a national cancer prevention and control plan since 2010 with the active support of the Lalla Salma Foundation for Cancer Control. This plan, which has been cited as an example internationally, includes screening and early detection of breast cancer as a national priority.
MAScIR is an applied research institution, part of the scientific laboratories ecosystem of the Polytechnic University of Mohammed VI.
MAScIR aims to promote and develop research and development poles in Morocco that meet the country’s needs in advanced technologies, particularly in the medical biology sector. So far, it has been able to file nearly 190 patents with extensions at the African regional level, produce about 700 scientific articles in world-renowned journals and implement more than one hundred projects and achievements with national and foreign industrialists, which indicates its maturity and capabilities in scientific research and research. Applied.