DUBAI: For women diagnosed with breast cancer, survival is only a part of the story.
What follows — the emotional, physical and psychological process of recovery — often demands a different kind of strength.
Around the world, and increasingly across the region, conversations about healing are expanding beyond treatment alone to include body image, emotional safety and the right to feel whole again.
For Jen Blandos, founder and CEO of Female Fusion, that journey with breast cancer began twice.
Blandos was first diagnosed with breast cancer 13 years ago, and again in 2025. The recurrence, she says, came as both a shock and reminder of her resilience.
“After more than a decade, I never expected it to return, especially when I didn’t even feel a lump,” she told Arab News. “It was discovered during a routine scan, which made it even more surreal.”
The news, she admitted, was difficult to process. “I was frightened, not just of the cancer itself but of chemotherapy: things like losing my hair, being sick for months, and watching my body change again,” she said.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster, but I reminded myself that I’d faced it before, and I could do it again.”
What struck her most, though, was how much cancer care had evolved since her first diagnosis.
Thirteen years earlier, she found herself moving between hospitals and specialists, carrying her medical notes from one appointment to another.
“Today, in the UAE, you can walk into one hospital and have everything — diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, and long-term care — all under one roof,” she said. “That’s a huge relief as a patient that you don’t need to be worried about remembering everything.”
Breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, with an estimated 2.3 million new cases and 670,000 deaths in 2022, as reported by the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
While survival rates have improved globally, disparities persist across developing regions where early screening and treatment access remain limited.
In the Middle East and North Africa, breast cancer accounted for roughly one in four new cancer cases among women and nearly 20 percent of cancer-related deaths in 2022, according to findings published in PubMed.
A 2023 study published in PubMed Central found that breast cancer is also the most common malignancy among women in all GCC nations: the UAE, Ƶ, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
The study reported that five-year survival rates vary across the region. It reaches around 89 percent in the UAE and Qatar, compared to 72 to 75 percent in Ƶ and Bahrain, reflecting differences in awareness, early detection, and access to multidisciplinary care.
As more women survive breast cancer, doctors say the next challenge lies in what comes after: how women see themselves, and how the health care system supports that journey.
“Breast reconstruction has a documented impact on the quality of life of a breast cancer patient,” said Dr. Stefano Pompei, reconstructive breast surgeon at Dubai’s Fakeeh University Hospital.
“Physical, emotional and sexual well-being are all elements of feminine life preserved also by the breast’s appearance,” he told Arab News.
Pompei explained that customized breast reconstruction should not be seen as an optional cosmetic step, but as a core part of recovery.
“These procedures reduce the negative physical and emotional experiences after a mastectomy, while improving body image and quality of life,” he said.
According to him, planning for reconstruction ideally begins the moment a patient’s cancer treatment is mapped out.
“It’s fundamental to choose a multidisciplinary breast unit with a qualified reconstructive plastic surgeon who collaborates with the breast surgeon,” he said.
“The reconstructive procedure should be planned simultaneously with the tumor excision in almost 100 percent of cases.”
Pompei added that options today are far more advanced and personalized than a decade ago.
Depending on the patient’s needs, reconstruction may involve reshaping remaining breast tissue, using an implant, or transferring tissue from another part of the body through microsurgery.
Despite the medical progress, awareness about reconstruction remains limited, particularly in the Arab region.
Many women are unaware that reconstruction can often be performed at the same time as their mastectomy, eliminating the need for additional surgeries later.
Others fear it will interfere with treatment or recovery, which doctors say is a misconception.
While surgeons or general practitioners are often the first to deliver a breast-cancer diagnosis, oncologists step in at one of the most delicate moments in a patient’s journey — when treatment decisions must be made.
“By the time we (oncologists) meet the patients, they already know what they’re facing. My role is to chart a plan and make sure I don’t overwhelm them with too much information all at once,” said Dr. Shaheenah Dawood, consultant medical oncologist at Mediclinic City Hospital in Dubai.
She emphasized that empathy and understanding are central to those conversations.
“It’s important to be honest, but also to understand how that individual is processing the information and whether they need someone close to them present,” she told Arab News.
“Each person is different, and it’s not only about individualizing therapy but also individualizing communication.”
Dawood noted that recent years have brought “an explosion of data” in breast-cancer management, with new approaches allowing doctors to personalize therapy in both early-stage and metastatic disease.
Novel clinical trials are helping physicians detect molecular changes long before they appear on scans, allowing for faster and more targeted intervention, said Dawood.
She added that new therapies such as immunotherapy for triple-negative disease and CDK4/6 inhibitors for hormone-receptor-positive breast cancer have “significantly improved overall survival.”
Despite these advances, she said barriers to early detection persist, with fear, lack of awareness, and even logistical challenges in accessing mammograms, still preventing many women from getting screened.
“Campaigns shouldn’t focus only on October. Breast cancer can occur at any time of year, and screening should be part of every woman’s regular health care routine,” said Dawood.
Beyond the scans, surgeries and statistics lies another phase of recovery, namely the silent work of rebuilding identity and peace.
For Yasmina Nagnoug, a clinical hypnotherapist, transformational coach and breast-cancer survivor, the healing journey begins where medicine ends — in the space between body, mind and soul.
“When I first received the news of breast cancer, I was scared but, strangely, not shocked,” she said. “Although I was young, active and had no genetic predisposition, my body had become the mirror of years of suppressed stress and inner conflict.”
Her experience inspired her to create the S.H.E. method — Soothe, Heal, Empower — a 12-week program that helps women process emotional trauma after illness.
“Healing isn’t about becoming someone new,” she said. “It’s about remembering who you truly are beneath the pain.”
Seven years after her diagnosis, she sees wholeness not as a return to who she was before cancer, but as a deeper alignment with herself.
“True wholeness means living from the inside out — connected to God, guided by love rather than fear,” she said. “I no longer chase perfection; I honor balance, authenticity and presence.”
Agreeing with the idea of conscious, whole-person healing is Nancy Zabaneh, who carries this belief into her work as a well-being educator and trauma-informed facilitator in Dubai.
“Healing goes beyond managing symptoms and embraces reconnection at several levels for inner strength and wholeness,” she said.
“Emotionally, it’s about allowing yourself to feel everything — fear, sadness, joy — and learning from those feelings instead of judging them.”
She believes that mindfulness and breathwork can help women bridge the distance between body and mind.
“After cancer treatment, many women describe feeling disconnected from their bodies,” she said.
“Mindfulness and gentle movement can help them release long-held tension and remind their bodies that they are safe again.”
Zabaneh, who recently spoke at Majlis Al-Amal, a well-being community by the Al-Jalila Foundation, said that compassion and connection are vital to recovery.
“We already value community deeply in this region. We simply need to extend that spirit to emotional well-being,” she said. “Healing isn’t about erasing what happened but about listening to the body with kindness rather than fear.”
That sense of connection is something Blandos, of Female Fusion, understands deeply. For her, healing meant finding strength in surrender and self-compassion. “I didn’t want to feel like I was ‘sick,’” she said.
“But I quickly realized that my body needed rest, and my business could continue without me being there.”
She credits her team for stepping up during her recovery and for showing her the value of allowing others to help. “Letting people support you isn’t weakness; it’s strength,” she said.
On the hardest days gratitude became her anchor.
“I focused on thankfulness: ‘Thank you for finding my cancer early. Thank you for my health insurance. Thank you for my doctors. Thank you for the chemotherapy making sure it doesn’t come back,’” she said.
“If I could help even one woman (feel less afraid) it would be worthwhile.”
Experts say the conversation about breast cancer in the Arab world is shifting from survival to wholeness, with growing openness around the emotional and physical impact of recovery.
As more survivors speak openly and medical care becomes increasingly integrated, the message from women like Blandos, Nagnoug and Zabaneh is clear: recovery is not just about surviving cancer, it is about reclaiming life with courage, balance and grace.
