Charitable entity to aid HK cancer fight

An international charitable foundation for combating cancer was officially established in Hong Kong on Sept 23, unveiling plans for 5,000 to 10,000 free cancer-screening places.

Jointly established by the International Society of Oncology Prevention and Treatments (ISOPT) and the Hong Kong Association for External Friendship, the new entity — ISOPT Charitable Foundation, or ICF — was flagged off along with the launch of the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Campaign and the Belt and Road Project for Cancer Prevention.

Under its Free Cancer Screening Support Programme, eligible Hong Kong residents considered to be at higher risk of cancer will be offered screening for breast, lung, liver and prostate cancers.

The screening services include mammography and ultrasound for breast cancer, low-dose CT scans for lung cancer, liver ultrasound and an alpha-fetoprotein blood test for liver cancer, and a prostate-specific antigen blood test for prostate cancer.

Potential beneficiaries will first complete questionnaires assessing risk factors for different cancers, according to Dennis Lam Shun-chiu, chairman of the ICF. Those meeting the eligibility criteria will then be contacted for further arrangements, including designated screening services in Shenzhen.

Lam, who is also co-founder and secretary general of ISOPT, added that the foundation expects the initial quota to be taken up within about a year and plans to seek additional resources to expand the program if demand is strong.

Beyond the local screening program, ICF plans to use the Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Campaign as a reference model for the Belt and Road Project for Cancer Prevention, with the aim of extending cancer-prevention education and early-screening initiatives to other regions.

"The ICF will start in Hong Kong while extending its reach to the Greater Bay Area, Belt and Road partner countries, and other developing countries and regions," Lam said.

Drawing on experience gained in Hong Kong, the foundation hopes to gradually expand cancer-prevention education, screening and professional exchanges to Belt and Road countries and other developing regions, he added.

A multilingual online health education platform is also being developed to provide cancer-prevention information and expert knowledge to wider audiences. During the media session, Lam said the platform is expected to offer content in at least 10 languages.

Charles M. Balch, founder and president of the International Society of Oncology Prevention and Treatments, highlighted the need to reach people before symptoms appear, particularly as cancer is increasingly affecting younger and middle-aged people.

"Cancer is a silent killer. If we wait for symptoms, the majority of people have advanced cancer," Balch, who is also honorary president of the ICF, told China Daily during the media session. "So we have to get to people before they have symptoms."

Cancer should no longer be viewed solely as a disease of older people, he noted, pointing to cases among people in their 20s to 50s.

Greater efforts are therefore needed to help healthy and working-age people understand their cancer risks and take part in appropriate prevention and screening programs before symptoms develop, according to Balch.

Community outreach through schools and businesses could also encourage people to better understand their risks and enter screening programs earlier, improving the chances of cancers being detected at an early stage, he added.