Overview ofTreatment Approaches As cancer incidences have risen dramatically during the past two

Overview ofTreatment Approaches

As cancer incidences have risen dramatically during the past two decades in Asia, governments there have begun to invest heavily in initiatives to address this issue. Such initiatives are intended to improve public awareness of risk, increase treatment availability and increase the number of treatment options.

Many clinics, hospitals and research centers especially devoted to cancer therapy have opened throughout Asia.These include the Shanghai Breast Health Resource Center, Korea’s National Cancer Center (NCC), and the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS). The majority combine both research and treatment programs. Some, such as NCCS and NCC, are the result of governmental policy and funding. Increasingly, Asian organizations are partnering with Western counterparts to further cancer research and treatment. For instance, the Shanghai Breast Health Resource Center was established jointly by the Shanghai Center for Drug Control and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, a leading research center located in Seattle, Wash.

The cancer treatment strategies in Asia are similar to those used in the rest of the world, and include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or a combination of methods. Gradually, oncologists also are experimenting with hormone and biological therapies as well.Chemotherapy also is a common cancer treatment option in Asia. In China, at least one cancer center in each province has the capability to deliver chemotherapy treatment. In the last decade, many clinical trials testing chemotherapy drugs have been conducted in Japan, Korea and China. Combined treatment methods such as chemotherapy with surgery or radiation therapy increasingly are used, even in the developing poorer countries in Asia.

Radiation therapy is another treatment option in Asia that has become increasingly available.China, for example, has progressed rapidly in the acquisition of advanced methods of radiotherapy. A study on the growth of radiotherapy in China found that in a decade, the number of radiation oncology centers in China has more than doubled to about 1,000 centers across the country. The number of radiation therapy centers in Korea has climbed steadily in the last decade too. Meanwhile, developing countries such as Thailand, which currently only have a few centers with radiation therapy capabilities, are looking to expand their facilities in the near future.

Cancer centers in Asia increasingly are well-equipped and rival their Western counterparts in technical sophistication. Treatments such as Gamma Knife, three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy and intensity-modulated radiation therapy are routinely performed. For instance, in 2010, Korea’s National Cancer Center began to offer proton therapy. While proton therapy is not a new technology, its availability has expanded gradually. In 2011, Taiwan unveiled the country’s first positron emission tomography (PET) system designed especially to detect breast cancer. Clinical trials at Taiwan’s National University Hospital found the device to be more accurate than mammograms. Meanwhile, the emergence of domestic tomography manufacturing companies such as China’s Shinva and Yuyue Medical Equipment and Supply Co. Ltd., signal Asia’s growing ability to make their own sophisticated medical technology.