Early detection key to raise cancer patients' survival rate

Early screening, diagnosis and treatment will be key to realizing the target of raising the five-year survival rate for cancer patients set in the Healthy China 2030 Initiative, said experts at an event on the World Cancer Day, which fell on Sunday this year.

As per the initiative, the overall five-year survival rate for patients suffering from all types of cancers in the country should be raised to 46.6 percent by 2030.

There is a significant difference in the five-year survival rate of patients with different stages of cancer at the time of diagnosis, said Sheng Yuan, honorary director of thyroid and breast surgery of Shanghai Changhai Hospital, at the event held by pharmaceutical company MSD in Shanghai.

"In the case of breast cancer, for example, the five-year survival rate for patients with stage I to II is about 50 percent higher than that of patients with stage III to IV," he said, adding that it is of great significance to make efforts from various aspects of society to allow more cancer cases to be discovered early and receive timely treatment.

Liao Ning, head of breast surgery at the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, said the diagnosis rate of stage 0 breast cancer with her team has reached 24.7 percent, a high level internationally.

"The early detection of stage 0 patients can not only reduce the pain of treatment, but also bring about a better prognosis. The five-year survival rate of such patients is 99 percent to 100 percent," Liao said.

"We hope that more patients can have a better chance of being cured through taking the initiative to participate in screening and being detected early," she said.

Ge Rui, deputy director of the thyroid and breast surgery department of Shanghai Huadong Hospital, said with the advancement of treatment methods and improvement of the cancer diagnosis and treatment system, he believed that many types of cancers will be managed as chronic diseases in the near future.

Data from the World Health Organization showed that the number of new cancer cases and deaths from cancer in China were 4.82 million and 2.57 million, respectively, in 2022.