Roche’s program to help breast cancer patients in rural areas, train medical staff

In many less developed areas, many women were diagnosed with cancer only after it was in the middle, even late, stage.” Ren Guosheng, director of the breast cancer committee of CACA

A pilot project to reduce the rate of breast cancer and treat patients with proper medical care in poor areas of China will be launched with support from Shanghai Roche Pharmaceutical Ltd.

The program, announced early this month, will be guided by the China Population Communication Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission and the Chinese Anti Cancer Association (CACA), which will have a special focus on female health in regions with inadequate access to medical attention. The project is being supported by Roche, the domestic pharmaceutical company specializing in oncology, virology and implantology.

During the project, a team of volunteers, senior and junior doctors will visit more than 20 cities and counties that are less economically developed. During the trip, they will offer voluntary training to local medical workers, provide free diagnosis service for residents and raise awareness of the disease.

According to the data from CACA, the incidence of breast cancer has seen a sharp increase in the country, with about 43 females per 100,000 suffering from the deadly disease. The situation is even worse in the regions with a struggling economy. According to the data, about 98,000 females in impoverished rural areas are diagnosed each year with breast cancer, accounting for 14.11 percent of the total incidence rate of the disease throughout rural areas of the country.

Ren Guosheng, director of the breast cancer committee of CACA, said the country has included 36 new medicines for breast cancer into the social medical insurance system, largely releasing the financial burden on patients.

However, due to the imbalance of the medical resource distribution, the medical treatment toward the disease differs, largely depending on the regions where patients live.

“In many less developed areas, many women were diagnosed with cancer only after it was in the middle, even late, stage,” Ren said. “And many patients can’t receive adequate treatment in time and miss the best time for medical attention.”

“One of the hardest things to improve such a situation is to raise awareness toward this disease and encourage people to seek medical attention as soon as possible. By that, they can receive proper treatment, prolong their life and ease the financial burden,” Ren added. “It is also the bottleneck in the less developed areas.”

Roche has launched the initiative to promote systematic treatment for breast cancer, raising awareness about the disease and providing specified treatment.

“This project will aim to improve the medical treatment level in the less-advanced areas ... to improve the health condition of local females,” said Li Hong, a professor specializing in breast cancer with CACA.

“With such a big population, it is not possible to examine” all the adult women in less-developed areas,” Liu said. “We hope through the project by Roche, more women will be encouraged to take the test for breast cancer and get diagnosed as soon as possible.”

Zhou Hong, general manager of Roche, said the company “will always put the patient at first place. We aim to bring new medicine into China to benefit the Chinese people. During this event, we hope we can improve the quality of local medical treatment and raise awareness in the poverty-ridden areas”.

Roche will also help CACA build an online platform for women to sign up for free diagnosis and examination.