Taiwan needs to revamp research into stomach cancer and increase National Health Insurance (NHI) coverage for targeted therapy to fight the disease, medical experts said yesterday.
Although the government plans to expand NHI coverage to Helicobacter pylori screening, the measure alone would not be enough, National Cheng Kung University Hospital superintendent Shan Yan-shen (沈延盛) told a news conference in Taipei.
The nation on average reported 4,000 new cases of stomach cancer annually, with the tumor progressing to a late or terminal stage for 35 percent of the patients, he said at the event hosted by the Gastroenterological Society of Taiwan.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Citing a global study by the Concord Cancer Center dated 2018, he said that Taiwanese gastric cancer patients’ survival rates in the past three decades improved by three points to 38 percent, lagging far behind Japan and South Korea.
The main reason for the nation’s failure to make significant progress was inadequate screening and limited choice of drugs, he said.
Starting this year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare is subsidizing checkups to screen people between 50 years and 74 years old for the bacterium in 17 jurisdictions to facilitate prevention and early treatment, he said.
As the bacterium is not present in more than 50 percent of Taiwanese patients, the measure would have a limited effect, Shen said, adding that doctors need to discover the factor driving the cancer and devise a new screening strategy.
At-risk groups should be encouraged to take gastroscopy exams, he said.
Members of the public must know having trouble swallowing and discomforts in the lower sternum, bloating after eating normal portions and pain from having an empty stomach are signs of stomach cancer, he said.
NHI covered only 6 percent of targeted treatments for patients with HER2-positive gastric cancer, said Chen Jen-hsi (陳仁熙), a doctor at the Taipei branch of Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
Meanwhile, patients with HER2-negative gastric cancer — which accounts for the overwhelming majority of cases — still have limited options for insurance-covered treatments, especially Stage IV drugs, he said.
Authorizing more types of targeted therapy for NHI would save lives, as such procedures have reduced stomach cancer fatality by 25 percent, he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS