The Health Promotion Administration (HPA) yesterday urged people diagnosed with cancer to get treatment immediately, warning that putting it off for even three months could dramatically decrease their chances of survival.
In one of several health briefings marking World Hepatitis Day, July 28, HPA Cancer Prevention and Control Group Director Wu Chien-yuan (吳建遠) said 18 percent of all cancer patients do not get treatment within three months of their diagnosis.
The one-year mortality rate for these cases is 53 percent, compared with a mortality rate of 17 percent for patients who receive treatment immediately, Wu said, citing the results of a 2012 survey on cancer that were released in May.
In the case of liver cancer, failing to get treatment in the first three months after diagnosis results in a one-year mortality rate of 34 percent.
The survey data, which offer the most recent detailed picture of cancer trends in Taiwan, showed that 40 percent of those diagnosed with the disease bypassed treatment, because they were old and did not think it was necessary.
Another 30 percent opted against treatment because of a fear of surgery and side effects from chemotherapy, and 14 percent cited concerns that the process would place an undue financial burden on their families.
About 70 percent of all patients who discontinue cancer treatment do so out of concern for the potential side effects, Wu said.
HPA Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said that with current advances in medicine, cancer does not have to be scary, and that putting off treatment is in fact the true killer.
To raise greater awareness of cancer treatment, the HPA launched the Cancer Patient Navigation Program last year, in which more than 80 hospitals are currently participating.
It provides cancer patients with multiple avenues of care, including financial support, medical advice and information, as well as immediate medical care.
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