Mayra Galindo Leal, general director of the Mexican Association of the Fight Against Cancer (AMLCC) provides an overview of the main milestones of this association that stands as the most important patient organization for cancer in Mexico, her expectations towards the pharmaceutical industry, and the main challenges she faces when trying to expand cancer coverage in Mexico’s public sector.   You have been working for the AMLCC since 1997, which is active on four main missions: education, prevention, patient support, and advocacy. Cancer in general stands as the third cause of death in Mexico. Do you feel there is an increasing recognition around cancer as a public health priority in Mexico? AMLCC was founded in 1972. However, until 1997, the development of cancer-related programs didn’t occur in a tangible manner. The real history of the fight against cancer in Mexico started two years before I entered this institution thanks to a private company: Avon, which started their crusade against breast cancer and funnelled their funds into the Health Ministry as a countermeasure against any kind of corruption. At that time there was however not enough knowledge about a disease that had already been affecting our community for many years. Physicians for example didn’t hold the expertise and proficiency to correctly use mammograms and this is why education and knowledge transfer have been one of our priorities over the years.

This is one of our main objectives: to make Mexican people more aware about the kind of issues that are directly related to their health