Replies to LegCo questions

LCQ20: Cancer Co-ordinating Committee

Following is a question by Hon Emily Lau Wai-hing and a written reply by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, Dr Yeoh Eng-kiong, in the Legislative Council today (November 27):

Question :

Regarding the prevention and cure of cancer, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council of :

(a) the membership list, terms of reference and work portfolio of the Cancer Co-ordinating Committee, and the efforts the Committee has made in the prevention and cure of breast cancer since its establishment last year;

(b) the time currently taken by the Hong Kong Cancer Registry to compile statistics on the incidence rates of cancer, and the authorities' measures to assist the Registry in speeding up the processing of relevant information;

(c) the annual expenditure on preventing breast cancer since the introduction of the Woman Health Programme, and its percentages in the overall expenditure of the Programme in the respective years; and the expenditure on the prevention of breast cancer under the Programme budgeted for the coming year; and

(d) the respective numbers of women who were diagnosed as having developed breast cancer and those who died of the disease in the past two years?

Answer :

(a) To better combat and prevent cancer, the Government has set up a high-level Cancer Coordinating Committee (CCC) in 2001. It is chaired by the Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food, with membership comprising cancer experts, academics, physicians from the public and private sectors, and public health professionals. The membership list is attached at Annex.

The terms of reference of the CCC are to formulate a comprehensive strategic plan and make recommendations for the effective prevention and control of cancer in Hong Kong. The work of the CCC focuses on four priority areas -

* Cancer data and priorities;
* Cancer prevention and screening;
* Cancer services and treatment standards; and
* Cancer research and development.

Breast cancer is a priority area for the CCC. It launched a pilot project on breast cancer in October 2002 with the following objectives -

* to explore ways and means of further improving the data collection process;

* to study the feasibility of collecting a comprehensive list of epidemiological and clinical variables for breast cancer registration in Hong Kong; and

* to link the cancer data to death data, and develop an information system to facilitate the collection of the clinical variables and to improve the reporting rate for breast cancer registration.

The CCC will make reference to the findings of the project upon its completion in making recommendations on the primary prevention, screening, and treatment services for breast cancer.

(b) The Hong Kong Cancer Registry compiles cancer data of the local population, collecting 140,000 to 150,000 episodes of such data each year including the demographic, anatomical and pathological information of cancer patients. Owing to the large volume of work involved in sorting, validating, matching and categorizing the data collected, the time lag for producing the consolidated data of a particular year is usually two to three years, which is comparable with international standards adopted in terms of data quality and reporting time.

One of the main tasks of the CCC is to enhance the collation of cancer data. An Expert Working Group has been established to take forward the subject with a view to further improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the Hong Kong Cancer Registry.

(c) The Department of Health (DH) set up the Woman Health Service in 1994. The aim is to promote the health of women and address their health needs at various stages of life through (i) enhancing the awareness and encouraging the practice of healthy lifestyle in women; (ii) educating women on the prevention of important health problems; and (iii) providing women with specific screening services including that for breast cancer. The DH provides women health services not only through its three Woman Health Centres but also its 10 Maternal and Child Health Centres. Through physical examination and investigations, health talks, counselling and workshops, clients are encouraged to adopt healthy lifestyle practices and, if necessary, those who have suspected abnormalities will be referred to specialists for further management. In addition, women health services are also provided by the private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGO) such as the Family Planning Association of Hong Kong.

Breast cancer prevention requires a multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach involving health promotion, preventive and curative services provided by DH, Hospital Authority, NGO and private sector. This approach is similar to practices overseas. As breast cancer prevention is integral to the provision of different component of the health service, we cannot separately account for the relevant resources involved. Nonetheless, the total resources spent on the three Women Health Centres amount to $18 million each year.

(d) The respective number of new cases of female breast cancer and those who died of the disease in the most recent two years for which data are available are set out below -

Annex

Membership List of Cancer coordinating Committee


Chairman:

Dr E K Yeoh        Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food


Members (16 nos):

 
End/Wednesday, November 27, 2002
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