Plans are underway to open National Cancer Institute and Research Center in Dagon Seikkan Township, Yangon Region, in order to provide better cancer treatment and do more research, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.
The ministry's three-year report shows that cancer patients represent over 2 percent of all patients coming to hospitals across Myanmar. Of those cancer patients, female patients suffering from lung cancer account for 9.6 percent and male patients 15.7 percent. Liver cancer accounts for 14.8 percent and stomach cancer for 10.3 percent.
Male death rate caused by liver cancer represents 28.3 percent and female death rate caused by lung cancer 18.9 percent.
The Ministry of Health and Sports and Varian Medical Systems will sign a cooperation agreement to establish the center where medical physicists will be first trained. Then, radiologists will receive training.
A delegation led by the managing director of Southeast Asia and Korea and the senior director of Government Affairs and Market Development called on the Union Minister for Health and Sports in Nay Pyi Taw on October 24.
Both sides discussed provision of better treatment and healthcare for cancer patients in accord with the medical ethics, raising of public awareness in cancer knowledge and the ministry's distribution of mobile tablets to health staff about health knowledge.
In 2018 alone, nearly 70,000 new cancer patients were registered. The ministry is registration processes for cancer patients at Yangon, Mandalay and Taunggyi public hospitals.
According to WHO Global Health Estimates, among non-communicable diseases facing Myanmar, the death rate caused by coronary artery disease is the highest in the country—39 percent in men and 45 percent in women.
