NONTHABURI, 30 September 2015 – Thailand and Japan have agreed to develop an academic cooperation on cancer researches, aiming to launch the first Early Cancer Detection Center of ASEAN.
The Minister of Public Health Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn and the Japanese Minister of Health, Labour, and Welfare Yasuhisa Shiozaki, today witnessed the signing ceremony of an agreement between the National Cancer Institute and Nagoya University on the cooperation in early cancer detection service enhancements.
The Minister of Public Health revealed that the scope of cooperation included the establishment of the Endoscopy Center at the National Cancer Institute in Thailand, which will be further developed into an Early Cancer Detection Training Center. The Center will be the first of its kind in the ASEAN region.
He said that the cooperation will also include academic exchanges between cancer experts for diagnosis and research in finding the causes of gastrointestinal cancer, including esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, small intestine cancer, colon cancer, liver and pancreas cancer. The early diagnosis of cancer will result in a more effective treatment which can prolong the patient’s life, and lead to the better quality of life among the people of ASEAN.
On this occasion, the National Cancer Institute Director Weerawut Imsamran revealed that cancer is the number one cause of deaths in Thailand for 15 consecutive years, at the amount of 61,000 deaths annually. Among these deaths, the number of gastrointestinal cancer patients in Thailand for the year 2014 was recorded at 111,864.
He said that actions should be taken to control the occurance of cancer. The earlier the disease is identified through diagnosis, the better it can be controlled, which means better treatment results and less medical expenses for patients.
