Hanoi offers free cancer screening for residents with health insurance

Hanoi will offer free cancer screenings for local people aged 35 or over who have health insurance, said city mayor Nguyen Duc Chung on November 25 at a meeting with the Hanoi Evangelical Church.

The city is set to launch a high-technology center for digestive surgery on Sunday, which would allow 1.6 million Hanoi residents aged 35 to 65 have a free screening for digestive cancers, said the mayor.

“The cost of the pre-emptive screening can range from US$15 in Singapore to $25 in the United States,” said Chung.

“But Hanoi will cover the cost for those with health insurance. This is a breakthrough primarily aimed at improving health care services for local people,” he added.

The center for digestive health is equipped with most advanced medical devices such as 4-dimensional virtual endoscopy machines.

Statistics show the average five-year survival rate for males is currently 33% nd about 40% for females. In some developed countries, the cancer survival rate has reached 70-80%.

Most of the cancer patients in Vietnam are diagnosed late, which results in more costly treatment and a higher death rate, according to Tran Van Thuan, managing director of a Hanoi-based Cancer Hospital K.

Vietnam records on average 150,000 new cancer cases per year, according to the World Health Organization.