To protect themselves against breast cancer, women over the age of 40 should not rely only on self-examination, but should also receive regular mammograms, Bureau of Health Promotion Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said.
Sharing her own experience, the 47-year-old family doctor said on Friday that she had never noticed any abnormalities in her breasts, despite conducting self-examinations every month. However, a 1cm benign fibroma was found in her left breast when she had her first mammogram recently.
“Even I, a trained doctor, failed to feel the lump in my breast,” Chiou said.
In Taiwan, women are diagnosed with breast cancer at an average age of 51, with breast cancer patients dying at an average age of 56, according to Department of Health statistics.
The incidence rate of breast cancer among Taiwanese women in their 40s is fast catching up with that of the US, mainly because of inceasing obesity and a Western diet, Chiou said.
She said cancer incidence among women their 50s could also rise and urged women over 40 to have a mammogram once every two years.
The government provides free mammograms once every two years to women aged 45 to 69, while those who have immediate relatives who have been diagnosed with breast cancer are entitled to the free service from the age of 40.
Despite the program, only 11 percent of women aged 45 to 69 received the screening, while the rate for those aged 50 to 69 was only slightly higher at 18 percent, according to Department of Health data.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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