Poor women in southern provinces will receive free gynecological check-ups and treatment for cancer under a new programme for prevention and control of cancer in women.

 Check-ups will be available to 150,000 to 200,000 women in 32 provinces and cities in the south during the year, according to Pham Viet Thanh, deputy head of the Ministry of Health’s Mother- Child Health Department.

Leading hospitals in the field in HCM City including Tu Du Hospital, Hung Vuong Hospital and Oncology Hospital will provide training courses for doctors in provincial-level hospitals and health centres, and work with them to perform free surgeries for poor women with cancer.
The programme will not only benefit poor women but also doctors in targeted provinces and cities in terms of professional learning, when experienced doctors from large hospitals in HCM City are dispatched to provincial-level hospitals and health centres to perform health exams and surgeries, Thanh said.

An estimated number of 3,000 women are at risk of breast cancer every year, 2,550 at risk of cervical cancer and 1,000 women at risk of ovarian cancer, according to figures from the Ministry of Health.

About 1,320 out of 3 million married women in HCM City are at risk of having one of these common cancers every year.

The programme is funded by the HCM City Sponsor Association for Poor Patients in collaboration with large hospitals in HCM City and reproductive health care centres in 32 southern provinces and cities./.

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