The incidence of breast cancer in women in Taiwan has doubled over the past decade, the Formosa Cancer Foundation said yesterday, citing data provided by the Bureau of Health Promotion.
A 2010 cancer registry report from the bureau showed a greater than 100 percent growth in incidences of breast cancer in women during a 10-year period, from 4,681 cases reported in 2000 to 9,655 in 2010, the foundation said, adding that the number of cases reported in 2009 was 8,926, showing that the number of cases has been steadily rising for years.
At a charity walk held yesterday in Taipei to raise public awareness of breast cancer, foundation chairman Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the incidence rate in women aged between 45 and 49 is the highest in all age groups.
Wang suggested five ways in which women can reduce their likelihood of developing breast cancer. They are to be regularly screened, take plenty of exercise, maintain a healthy body, avoid tobacco and eat a balanced diet.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said many people are mistaken in thinking that cancer is always fatal.
“The later stages of cancer are of course especially worrying, but early medical intervention can greatly increase the chances of successful treatment. In the case of breast cancer, success rates can be as high as 97 percent due to prompt detection,” he said.
The group also said that women who have no children, or who have them later in life, may be at greater risk of developing breast cancer, while other risk factors include having a first-degree relative (mother, sister or daughter) who had suffered breast cancer, having had ovarian or endometrial cancer, going through menopause later or using hormone replacement therapy.
On why women may have a slightly higher breast cancer risk if they have no children or had their first child after the age of 30, foundation chief executive officer and head of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Wan-Fang Hospital Lai Gi-ming (賴基銘) said a possible reason could be that progesterone, a hormone that can inhibit human breast cancer cell growth, increases during pregnancy.
“Having children early in life can help inhibit the development of breast cancer cells,” said Lai, who nevertheless emphasized that a healthy diet and lifestyle as well as routine screening are the best ways to prevent cancer.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching