Women between 50 and 69 years old can now receive insurance-covered mammograms every two years to prevent breast cancer, the Bureau of Health Promotion announced at a Taipei press conference yesterday.
Noting the increasing incidence of breast cancer among older women, the agency urged hospitals and clinics nationwide to contract with the Bureau of National Health Insurance and encourage older women to have mammograms. Since the plan was launched on July 1st, 73 hospitals and clinics have been equipped with screening machines approved to provide the service.
PHOTO: WANG MING-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Every year, about 4,500 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 1,200 die, according to the Department of Health. The probability of breast cancer rises with age. Breast self-examination and mammograms are recommended to detect the cancer at an early state.
"If the tumor is identified in the earliest stage, where cancer cells have not yet broken away from the primary tumor and not yet penetrated into lymphatic and blood vessels, we are confident that the survival rate could reach 80 percent to 90 percent without mastectomy," said Chang King-jen (張金堅), a gynecological surgeon at National Taiwan University Hospital.
"The key message here is simple: the deadly disease is not unpreventable," said Yang Yuh-cheng (
According to health officials, women's case histories for breast screening tests and cervical swabs will be computerized and recorded on their cards next year.
"By doing so, every time women go to the doctors, doctors will know the number and dates of tests that have been taken. Then the doctors can remind patients when to have mammographies and cervical swabs again," said the bureau's Kung Hsien-lan (孔憲蘭).
To fight cervical cancer, which takes 900 lives annually, the bureau subsidized 49 hospitals to offer a separate diagnosis room for cervical swabs to increase the service's accessibility.
Kung said that at Taipei General Veteran's Hospital, nurses actively inform patients at the registration counter about the swab service, and women can go directly to the consulting room without waiting for hours in the lounge, so about 100 more women per month take the tests.
"In the near future, we will demand that more regional hospitals actively inform patients and offer more immediate services. By widening the service's outreach, we hope to boost the test rate from the current 53 percent to 80 percent," Kung said.
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