Cancer screening programs in South-east Asia and Western Pacific

Wee, Hwee-Lin; Canfell, Karen; Chiu, Han-Mo; Choi, Kui Son; Cox, Brian; Bhoo-Pathy, Nirmala; Simms, Kate T; Hamashima, Chisato; Shen, Qianyu; Chua, Brandon; Siwaporn, Niyomsri; Toes-Zoutendijk, Esther

doi:10.1186/s12913-023-10327-8

BMC Health Services Research

Table 3 Overview of cancer screening strategies for countries or regions with (partly) organized programs*

From: Cancer screening programs in South-east Asia and Western Pacific

Country	Initiation	Cancer types	Test modality	Age range	Interval	Additional information
South Korea	2002	Breast	Mammography	40 and above	2 years
	2002	Cervical	Pap Smear	20 and above	2 years
	2003	Liver	Abdominal Ultrasonography + Serum Alpha-Fetoprotein test	40 and above (high-risk individuals)	6 months	High risk is considered HBsAg positive or anti-HCV positive or liver cirrhosis
	2004	Colorectal	FIT	50 and above	1 year
	2002	Gastric	UGIS/GE	40 and above	2 years
	2019	Lung	Low dose CT scan	54–74 with 30 pack-years	2 years
Thailand#	2005	Cervical	HPV (since 2020)	30–60	5 years	HPV-testing is not fully implemented across the country
Thailand#	2018	Colorectal	FIT (20 µg Hb/g feces)	50–70	2 years
Australia	1991	Breast	Mammography	50–74	2 years
	1991	Cervical	HPV	25–74	5 years
	2006	Colorectal	FIT (20 µg Hb/g feces)	50–74	2 years
Japan$	1987	Breast	Mammography	40 and above	2 years
	1983	Cervical	Pap Smear	20 and above	2 years	HPV-testing is currently debated, but not yet implemented.
	1992	Colorectal	FIT (cut-off not defined)	40 and above	1 year
	1983	Gastric	UGIS/GE	UGIS: 40 and above GE: 50 and above	UGIS 1 year GE 2 year
New Zealand	1989	Breast	Mammography	45–69	2 years
	1991	Cervical	Pap Smear	25–69	3 years	Switching to 5-yearly HPV-testing in 2023
	2017	Colorectal	FIT (40 µg Hb/g feces)	60–74	2 years
Singapore	2002	Breast	Mammography	50–69	2 years
	2004	Cervical	Pap Smear HPV	25-29 30-69	3 years 5 years
	2011	Colorectal	FIT (10 µg Hb/g feces) or colonoscopy	50 and above	1 year 10 years
Taiwan	2004	Breast	Mammography	45–69 (40–44 with family history)	2 years
	1995	Cervical	Pap Smear	30 and above	3 years
	2004	Colorectal	FIT (20 µg Hb/g feces)	50–74	2 years
	2004	Oral	Oral mucosa inspection	30 and above with the habits of smoking and/or betel nut chewing 18 and above for aborigines with the habit of betel nut chewing	2 years
Opportunistic approach with national screening recommendation with work in progress to implement organized cancer screening
Malaysia	2011	Breast	CBE/Mammography	35 and above 50–74	1 year 2 years
	1995	Cervical	Pap Smear	20–65	3 years	HPV-testing was introduced in 2020, but not available yet in the whole country
	2014	Colorectal	FIT	50 and above	1 year

Abbreviations: Pap Smear (Papanicolaou test); HPV (human papillomavirus); FIT (fecal immunochemical testing); CBE (clinical breast examination); UGIS (Upper Gastro-Intestinography series); GE (Gastrointestinal Endoscopy)
* The information in Table 2 has been provided by the representatives of each country. This information may differ from the references listed in Table 1, which may be out of date
# Thailand has no organized breast cancer screening program
$ Japan has no organized lung cancer screening program

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ISSN: 1472-6963

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