One out of every 93 people who go for cancer screening tests turns out to suffer from cancer or is experiencing precancerous conditions, the Health Promotion Administration said.
The agency last year subsidized 222 hospitals to execute the Cancer Screening Quality Improvement Plan. Under the plan, a total of nearly 2.69 million people have been screened for cancer. The number of screening tests completed in these hospitals was 1.1 times higher than in 2011 and 2.1 times higher than in 2009.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare provide 100 percent funding to hospitals to screen for four types of cancer — cervical cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer and oral cancer.
The growth in the number of colon cancer screening tests completed this year under the plan was the most impressive, the agency said, showing an increase of 30 percent compared with the amount completed in 2011.
The number of people screened for cancer so far this year at the 222 hospitals account for nearly half of the total amount screened last year, which was about 5 million, Health Promotion Administration Director-General Chiou Shu-ti (邱淑媞) said.
Out of the 5 million, 40,000 people who had gone for screening have been found to have precancerous conditions, in addition to 12,000 cases of cancer confirmed by the screening.
“The patients with precancerous conditions or cancers are mostly in the early stages of the disease,” Chou said. “They can expect to be more successfully treated [than patients in the late stages of the disease].”
Chou said that 92 percent of Taiwanese visit a doctor using their National Health Insurance card at least once a year. If they can be encouraged by healthcare providers to undergo cancer screening tests, they can receive early medical intervention if needed.
This will result in not only saving a lot more lives, but also a large amount of medical expenses for treating late-stage cancers, he added.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS