RIYADH — Dr. Majid Al-Fayyadh, CEO of King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (KFSH&RC), said that cancer was a 'death sentence' in the past, but that is no longer the case at present. "The cancer survival rate has become higher, reaching 50 percent, and in some cancers it is 97 percent. Fifty percent of my patients, who are treated at KFSH&RC, are completely cured, and the recovery rate is 90 percent for leukemia, as well as for breast cancer in its early stages," he said. Dr. Al-Fayyadh made these remarks while attending "Al-Liwan" program on Rotana Khalijia channel. He said that there are 20,000 cancer cases reported in the Kingdom annually, of which 16,000 are Saudis and 4,000 are non-Saudis. "KFSH&RC has treated 25 percent of the total patients diagnosed with cancer during the last year in the Kingdom," he said while looking forward to double this percentage. Dr. Al-Fayyadh was also the first to start creating a registry for cancer patients and later turned into an integrated national registry. He has also been appointed in the Saudi Health Council. Referring to the story of the establishment of KFSH&RC, he said that King Faisal wanted to put an end to the suffering of people who were forced to travel abroad to receive treatment. "The Madinah branch of the center, which opened one and a half years ago, serves all the people of the northern regions of Saudi Arabia. The branch currently operates with a capacity of 2400 beds while its capacity at the time of opening was only 100 beds." The KFSH&RC provides most medical services, but it has emerged and gained long experience in five major specialties such as cancer, organ transplant, heart, nerves, and genetic diseases, he said while appreciating the unlimited support provided by the Saudi leadership to citizens in the health sector and all walks of life. Dr. Al-Fayyadh said KFSH&RC established a stem cell bank, and last year it performed 1016 transplants for all organs, of which 830 were in Riyadh at a time when the largest stem cell center in the United States managed to carry out only 770 transplants. He revealed that the hospital is one of the leading medical centers that performs preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) operations in the world, with 600 operations per year, or more than 50 percent of what is conducted in the European continent as a whole, where 1100 operations are performed per year. Referring to the great transformation being taken place in the Saudi health sector, Al-Fayyadh stated that the state will continue to take care of the bills of complicated medical cases through the National Health Insurance Program, and that is with the participation of insurance companies. "The long waiting list of patients shows the hospital's success in providing distinguished and high-quality healthcare, which is what prompted us to increase the capacity. Three years ago, we were receiving 22,000 new patients annually, and currently this number shot up to 38,000 patients," he said. It is noteworthy that KFSH&RC is one of the most prominent hospitals in the world in providing specialized healthcare. It was recently ranked 20th in the list of the best healthcare institutions in the world and the first in the Middle East and Africa for the year 2023, according to the classification of Brand Finance, the world's leading brand valuation consultancy.
