Chulabhorn Hospital steps up fight against cancer with a new campaign
Chulabhorn Hospital has launched its "Stand up to Cancer Together” campaign in a bid to enable people to access high quality treatment.
"The campaign, under the theme 'Close the Care Gap’, aims to create awareness among people and enable them to access treatment," hospital director Surasak Leelaudomlipi said.
Apart from improvement of cancer diagnosis and treatment, Surasak said collaboration among relevant sectors is important to reduce the number of cancer patients in Thailand.
He also noted that some types of cancer could be treated if detected early. "Everyone can take part to mitigate the impact of cancer in Thailand," he added.
Supakorn Pitakkarnkul, National Cancer Institute deputy director, said the number of patients affected by some types of cancer had dropped thanks to advancement in technologies for dealing with the disease.
"Effective screening is important to enable patients to be free from cancer," he said.
He affirmed that the government sector is paying attention to deal with the disease, such as allowing people to receive free screening for cervical, breast and colon cancer.
Impact on global public health
Cancer is the number one cause of death globally, especially those in low to moderate income countries.
It is predicted that the number of cancer patients would surge by 20 million annually, and up to 13 million people would die due to cancer in 2030 if there were no effective measures to control the disease.
World Cancer Day is marked on February 4 every year to raise awareness of cancer and encourage its prevention, detection, and treatment.
Thailand's solutions to cancer
Thailand’s Department of Medical Services reported that in 2023 the country had approximately 140,000 new cancer patients per year.
It also pointed out that young people had become vulnerable to cancer due to several factors, such as eating habits, exposure to chemicals, stress and/or environmental changes.
The five most occurring types of cancer among Thais are liver, lung, breast, colon and cervical.
Relevant agencies have launched various schemes to reduce the number of patients so far. For instance, Thai people can access cancer treatment at a cheap price under the 30-baht-plus policy, and take a screening for early detection under the Cancer Warrior project.
A variety of solutions has also been developed to enable people to access treatment. Women aged 30-59 years can take human papillomavirus DNA self-sampling to check if they are at risk of cervical cancer.
Meanwhile, home chemotherapy facilitates colon cancer patients to receive treatment without having to visit hospitals.
