A cancer specialist is advising postmenopausal women to take heed of abnormal vaginal bleeding as it could be a sign of endometrial cancer, which has overtaken cervical and breast cancers to become the most prevalent gynecologic cancer in the nation over the past decade.
“The government’s year-long endeavor to promote regular pap smears may have helped bring down the prevalence of cervical cancer in this country, but noticeable increases in the number of women adopting a Western-style diet and not having children in recent years have greatly raised the endometrial cancer incidence rates,” Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital’s Division of Gynecologic Oncology doctor Wu Chen-hsuan (吳貞璇) was quoted by the Chinese-language United Daily News as saying at a cancer and health forum on Saturday.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s statistics, the prevalence of cervical cancer dropped by nearly 50 percent between 2000 and 2010, while that of endometrial cancer increased by 82.3 percent during the same period, which was equivalent to an average of more than 1,700 new endometrial cancer cases each year.
Wu said long-term exposure to estrogen increases a woman’s risk of endometrial cancer, and because estrogen levels were lower during pregnancy, women who have never been pregnant are exposed to estrogen for a longer time and are thus more susceptible to developing the cancer than women who have had children.
Overweight women are also vulnerable to the cancer as they are more prone to infertility, Wu said.
A noticeable increase in blood flow during menstruation or abnormal vaginal bleeding after menopause are common symptoms experienced by nearly 95 percent of endometrial cancer patients, Wu said, advising postmenopausal women who experience those symptoms to seek medical care rather than mistaking them as a “sign of rejuvenation.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai