Taiwan Government battles liver cancer with monitoring program

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Government battles liver cancer with monitoring program
2010/05/25 21:42:28

Taipei, May 25 (CNA) More than 1,000 people are participating in a government
project aimed at fighting liver cancer, health officials said Tuesday.

The Bureau of National Health Insurance said it is encouraging hospitals to
see to it high-risk patients have regular checkups to ensure the early
detection of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Hepatitis B carriers and hepatitis C patients are more likely to develop
cirrhosis and liver cancer, the bureau said, adding that it would target those
two groups for the monitoring project.

According to bureau statistics, 685,000 Taiwanese have been diagnosed with
hepatitis or cirrhosis, but only 91,000, or 13 percent, received abdominal
sonography and liver function tests for liver cancer every six months, as
recommended by liver experts at the National Health Research Institute.

The bureau said liver cancer can be detected at an early stage and that
treatment is more effective if the disease is diagnosed in its first or second
stage. Liver cancer and lung cancer have been the two deadliest cancers over
the past decade.

The bureau has set up a reward system to encourage hospitals that enroll and
routinely monitor high-risk patients, with hospitals eligible to receive
additional funding if they take the initiative to include the patients into
the care program. According to the bureau, a similar monitoring scheme for
schizophrenia patients was also put in place this year to better detect
high-risk patients. (By Chen Li-ting and Kay Liu) enditem/bc