China’s cancer prevention and treatment three-year action plan (2015-2017)

Source: en.nhfpc.gov.cn

Updated: 2015-09-15

The action plan is designed to protect people’s health by strengthening and improving cancer prevention and control at work and elsewhere.

The plan has the following goals:

1. Establish a national and provincial cancer prevention and treatment leadership coordination system to carry out department responsibilities and bring major carcinogenic factors under control.

2. Improve the capacity of the national cancer center and increase its role in technical guidance. Build a comprehensive cancer prevention and treatment network that involves hospitals, disease control institutes and community-level medical facilities. Upgrade regional cancer service management.

3. Further standardize a tumor registration system to cover 30 percent of the population, track cancer occurences and deaths from cancer in provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and formulate a national cancer map.

4. Increase knowledge of cancer prevention and treatment in 60 percent of the population, and reduce the adult smoking rate by three percent.

5. Focus on lung, liver, gastric, esophageal, colorectal, breast, cervical and nasopharynx cancers, expand cancer screening, early diagnosis and treatment coverage, and ensure 50 percent of major cancers can be diagnosed and treated at an early stage in major areas.

6. Improve standardized diagnosis and treatment of major cancers, expand cancer opportunistic screening and standardized diagnosis and treatment, gradually increase the five-year survival rate for major cancers and reduce the overall fatality rate.

To reach those goals the plan will include these major measures:

1. All parties will carry out responsibilities and comprehensive measures, as follows:

a) Health and family planning departments will be responsible for formulating cancer prevention and control plans and technical standards. They will also be required to ensure organization and coordination, technical guidance, health education, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring and evaluation pertaining to relevant cancer issues;

b) development and reform departments will incorporate cancer and other chronic disease prevention and control into national economic and social development planning, strengthen the capacity of medical treatment services for cancer, and advance relevant medical research, development and industrialization;

c) education departments will incorporate cancer and chronic diseases prevention knowledge into primary and secondary school education;

d) science and technology departments will support cancer prevention and treatment research through relevant national and regional scientific programs (special programs and funds);