Ha Noi women screened for cancer

More than 51,000 middle-aged women in Ha Noi have now been screened for cancer thanks to a three-year project to combat breast and cervical cancers which comes to an end this year.

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The project, spearheaded by the Ha Noi Committee for the Advancement of Women, involved 180 communes and towns, as well as 20 establishments with high numbers of female employees.

When early stages of cancers, precancerous lesions or symptoms associated with cancers were found in women screened by the project they were then sent to specialised hospitals for further treatment and diagnosis. Breast and cervical cancers have high survival rates of around 80 per cent if patients are treated in the early stages.


"Many women were saved by early detection of the cancers, which also makes their treatment costs much lower," said the municipal Women's Union President, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thanh.

The project also provided VND500 million (US$24,000) of free medicine and equipped the Ha Noi Oncology Hospital with medical machines worth more than VND1.5 billion (US$72,000).

"This project will provide valuable insight for the upcoming stage of the project, set to take place from 2015 to 2017. The new goal is to screen up to 70,000 women from 35 to 60 years of age in Ha Noi," said the Ha Noi People's Committee Vice President, Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc.

Studies at the HCM City Oncology Hospital conducted over the past five years show that breast and cervical cancers are the two most common cancers amongst Vietnamese women, about 15,000 and 5,100 annual diagnoses respectively