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SINGAPORE: Breast cancer has overtaken lung and colorectal cancers as the top cancer-killer in Singapore.
So this year's Breast Cancer Awareness Month hopes to encourage more women to go for screening.
Regular exercise and a healthy diet can help prevent breast cancer. But Singapore's increasingly affluent and sedentary lifestyle, plus more screening, has resulted in a 25 per cent increase in breast cancer cases over the past 10 years.
Previously, women died from breast cancer without being aware they had it.
Some 1,300 women are diagnosed with the disease every year, and 313 women die from breast cancer every year. Early detection saves lives, but only 41 per cent of women go for screening.
"Please get a mammogram. It's subsidised, it's available, it's accessible," urged Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports.
"I know it's not the most comfortable thing in life, but it makes a difference and it can save mums, it can save wives, it can save our sisters," he added.
Walks, talks and special offers for screening at hospitals are available during October for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Doctors recommend women aged between 40 and 49 to go for a mammogram once a year, and for women aged 50 to 69 to go for screening once every two years. This is the only way to bring down the death rate.
Subsidised mammograms are available throughout the year at all 15 polyclinics and on the mammogram bus.
A subsidised mammogram through the BreastScreen Singapore scheme costs S$50 for Singapore citizens and S$75 for Permanent Residents. A mammogram in a private hospital costs about S$110-S$150.
The number of women dying from breast cancer has remained stable over recent years, but the disease has become the top cancer-killer because death rates from lung and colorectal cancer have declined.
One of Singapore's grand old architectural dames is supporting the screening drive. The Arts House at Old Parliament is being lit up in pink over the next two weeks in support of breast cancer awareness and to remind women to go for mammograms.
- CNA/ir
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