The mortality rate of lung cancer in Taiwan has declined for nine consecutive years, with early detection through screening the key to significantly improving survival rates, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, WHO data showed.
Nearly 2.5 million people were diagnosed with lung cancer in 2022 and more than 1.8 million people died from the disease, International Agency for Research on Cancer data showed.
Photo courtesy of Changhua Christian Hospital
In Taiwan, the standardized mortality rate of lung cancer has declined for nine consecutive years, although the disease still killed 10,348 people last year and it is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the nation, the HPA said.
The case fatality rate is relatively high, but it varies significantly based on the stage at diagnosis, it said.
In 2022, 6.2 percent of people with the disease were diagnosed at stage 0, 32.3 percent at stage 1, 3.7 percent at stage 2, 10.4 percent at stage 3 and 47.7 percent at stage 4, HPA data showed.
The five-year survival rate at stage 1 is about 90 percent, but it drops to nearly 60 percent at stage 2, nearly 30 percent at stage 3 and only about 10 percent at stage 4, showing a significant difference between early and late detection, the agency said.
Detecting lung cancer early is key to increasing survival rates, it said.
The HPA said it has expanded eligibility for government-funded low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung cancer screenings this year based on the recommendation of the US Preventive Services Task Force’s recommendation that heavy smokers undergo the screenings, as well as the results of a domestic study titled “Taiwan Lung Cancer Screening In Never-smoker Trial.”
With the expanded criteria, people who meet one of two high-risk criteria are eligible for a LDCT every two years, the HPA said.
The two criteria are: men aged 45 to 74 and women aged 40 to 74 who have a family history of lung cancer — meaning that a biological parent, sibling or child has been diagnosed with lung cancer; and adults aged 50 to 74 who are heavy smokers or were heavy smokers, but have not smoked for 15 years or less.
The HPA defines a “heavy smoker” as someone with a smoking history of at least 20 “pack-years,” ie, when packs of cigarettes per day and years of smoking are multiplied, it gives 20. For example, more than one pack per day for 20 years or half a pack per day for 40 years.
HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) said that LDCT can detect early lung cancer, but it cannot reduce incidence rates, so the best prevention is to quit smoking.
Studies suggest that smokers can reduce their risk of lung cancer by 50 percent if they have quit smoking for 10 to 15 years, Wu said.
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
TAKING STOCK: The USMC is rebuilding a once-abandoned airfield in Palau to support large-scale ground operations as China’s missile range grows, Naval News reported The US Marine Corps (USMC) is considering new sites for stockpiling equipment in the West Pacific to harden military supply chains and enhance mobility across the Indo-Pacific region, US-based Naval News reported on Saturday. The proposed sites in Palau — one of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies — and Australia would enable a “rapid standup of stored equipment within a year” of the program’s approval, the report said, citing documents published by the USMC last month. In Palau, the service is rebuilding a formerly abandoned World War II-era airfield and establishing ancillary structures to support large-scale ground operations “as China’s missile range and magazine
A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to