A total of 3,925 women participated in the bureau’s breast cancer screening programme two months after its launch in October last year, of whom 599 were assessed as being at high risk of being stricken by breast cancer, accounting for 15.3 percent, the bureau said in its recent reply to directly-elected lawmaker Wong Kit Cheng’s written interpellation.
Wong made her appeal for accelerating the coverage of breast cancer screening to better protect women’s health in her written interpellation released last month. Copies of the interpellation and the reply from the government were sent to the media recently.
According to the bureau, the five-year relative survival rate of breast cancer in Macau is 88.5 percent, “which has been maintained at a good level”. Subject to the implementation of the first phase of the screening programme, the bureau will consider inviting more medical institutions to participate in the second phase.
In Wong’s written interpellation, she also asked the government to refer to the mainland’s standard of cancer prevention and treatment, noting that the mainland has a series of technical guidelines for screening and early diagnosis and treatment of key cancers such as gastric cancer, oesophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, cervical cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer, which has been promoted and applied across the mainland.
The bureau replied that the screening for cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer and breast cancer has already been implemented in Macau, adding that the main considerations in launching a new cancer screening programme are referring to international recommendations on the practice, and the medical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of screening methods.
Image courtesy of World Health Organisation (WHO) For more WHO information about how to beat breast cancer go to https://www.emro.who.int/noncommunicable-diseases/campaigns/breast-cancer-awareness-month-2022.html
