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.
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would