The government is enacting three measures to reduce cancer deaths by a third before 2030, President William Lai (賴清德) said in a recorded video played at the 30th Taiwan Joint Cancer Conference’s opening ceremony yesterday.
In the address, Lai first expressed gratitude to the nine major cancer associations for organizing the conference, which serves as a platform for health professionals to come together to promote cancer prevention, precision treatment and clinical evidence-based collaborative partnerships.
Citing the theme of this year’s conference “Beyond Limits: Toward a Next Era in Cancer Medicine,” he said it demonstrates cross-sector collaboration among cancer associations, healthcare facilities, research institutes and the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, taking action to advance healthcare quality and protect people’s health.
Photo: Screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Web site
“As the first president of Taiwan who is a physician, building a ‘healthy Taiwan’ is a vision for our country that I’ve been dedicated to advancing,” he said. “Cancer care is a top priority among our efforts to achieve a ‘Healthy Taiwan.’”
Lai said he has set a goal of reducing the country’s “age-standardized cancer mortality rate” by at least one-third by 2030.
“To achieve this goal, the government is actively carrying out the ‘cancer treatment three-pronged strategy’ — enhancing early cancer screening, focusing on genetic testing and precision medicine and establishing a NT$10 billion (US$316 million) fund for new cancer drugs — to effectively fight cancer,” he said.
The government-funded cancer screening services were used by more than 6 million people-times last year, a 25.7 percent increase from the year before, and they have helped more than 76,000 people detect cancer or precancerous activity and receive treatment, Lai said.
He said this year the government would continue to expand the cancer screening program, to help more people be diagnosed with cancer at earlier stages for better medical outcomes.
“Cancer treatment must move toward precision,” he said, adding that next-generation sequencing has been gradually included into National Health Insurance (NHI) coverage, helping doctors find the most suitable drugs to treat people with cancer within the therapeutic window.
The government has set up a dedicated evaluation center to expedite the introduction of new drugs, helping patients access world-class treatments sooner and bringing new hope to cancer treatment, he said.
Moreover, the Executive Yuan last year allocated NT$5 billion to the NHI fund, specialized for a “temporary payment scheme for new cancer drugs,” the President said, adding that the NHI coverage of seven types of new drugs and three types of expanded coverage has helped more than 3,500 cancer patients.
Another NT$5 billion would be allocated to the cancer new drugs fund this year, he added.
At the end of his address, Lai said joint efforts across the public and private sectors are essential for achieving the vision of a “healthy Taiwan.”
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