On World Cancer Day yesterday, President William Lai (賴清德) said the government would continue efforts to reduce cancer-related deaths, while the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) announced that the government-funded screening program would be expanded to include gastric cancer next year.
Lai spoke at a public awareness event held by Hope Foundation for Cancer Care in Taipei’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Tai-yuan (邱泰源) and HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun (吳昭軍) also attended the event.
Cancer is the No. 1 cause of death in Taiwan, Lai said, adding that it has been the leading cause of death for more than 40 years and claims more than 50,000 lives annually.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
As a former member of the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee from 1999 to 2010, he learned about the nation’s cancer situation and believed the government must take action to prevent and manage the disease.
As a legislator, he pushed for the passage of the Cancer Control Act (癌症防治法) in 2003 and the launch in 2005 of the National Cancer Prevention and Control Program, which entered its fifth phase this year, he said.
Last year, the Presidential Office established the Healthy Taiwan Promotion Committee and set a goal of reducing the mortality rate by one-third before 2030, he said.
The government would also establish a “health charter” to observe cancer risk factors and create a safer living environment, Lai said.
Government policies to prevent and control cancer include increasing the budget for cancer screening from NT$4 billion (US$121.3 million) to more than NT$6 billion to expand the types of cancer it covers and eligibility to detect the disease as early as possible, he said.
“However, it is regrettable that when [the Legislative Yuan] reviewed this year’s budget, 10 percent of the budget for cancer screening was cut and another 30 percent was frozen,” Lai said.
The budget cut and freeze would make administering cancer screenings more difficult, he added.
“The new legislative session has begun, and the ruling party will continue to communicate with the opposition parties, because cancer prevention and protecting public health should be a common goal regardless of party affiliation,” he added.
The second policy direction is focusing on the development of genetic testing and precision medicine, Lai said.
Some next-generation sequencing tests are covered by the National Health Insurance, he said.
A new cancer drug fund would be launched this year with an initial budget of NT$5 billion, the president said.
The budget could increase in the coming years and the fund can hopefully help ease cancer patients’ financial burden, he said.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of the event, the HPA head said that the government-funded cancer screening program would from next year include gastric cancer.
A trial program offering stomach cancer screening to colorectal cancer screening recipients aged 50 to 74 was held in nine administrative regions last year and would be expanded to 17 regions this year, he said.
People who are eligible would be the same as for colorectal cancer screening, he said.
The program is estimated to cost an extra NT$200 million to NT$300 million, and should benefit 500,000 to 600,000 people annually, he added.
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