Rising number of cancer cases overwhelms VN
Though the number of cancer patients in Vietnam has been rising, it has not been able to put in place effective prevention and treatment measures. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness among locals and meagre capacity of healthcare facilities, exper
On average, up to 130,000 cancer cases are diagnosed each year – a figure that could rise to 200,000 by 2020, a conference on cancer was told yesterday.
According to the World Health Organisation, up to 12 million new cancer cases are diagnosed globally and there are 7 million cancer-related deaths each year.
In developing countries, the number of cancer patients is rising sharply. On average, breast cancer is common among women, lung cancer among men and stomach cancer among both.
Assoc Prof Bui Dieu, director of Hanoi-based K Hospital, said most of the time, patients seek treatment in the final stage of the disease, which prevented effective treatment.
A study of 51,000 cancer patients showed that 71.4 per cent had undergone total check up and that 5 per cent of them had left cancer treatment until after the last stage.
As per the Vietnam Cancer Association, the country’s health sector is overwhelmed, as it cannot deal with the overload of cancer patients.
There are only six public hospitals specialising in cancer treatment, including K Hospital in Hanoi, Cancer Hospital in Da Nang, and Cancer and Tumour hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.
Polyclinics in the 37 other provinces have cancer and tumour treatment departments, but lack proper facilities. The health sector can only meet 30 per cent of the demand, the conference was told.
In order to deal with this, Vietnam has set up a national programme for cancer prevention and treatment, with the aim of boosting awareness among residents, training healthcare workers on proper diagnosis and monitoring the cancer-treatment system.
However, experts wonder if it would take more time for the programme to reach its target, as the present conditions are very tough.
Experts said the government needed to invest more on diagnosis and treatment facilities as well as find manpower to deal with the rising number of patients.
The conference, organised by the Vietnam Cancer Association, Hue Central Hospital and Hue Medical University, was attended by 400 experts from the United States, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.
