Serial public cancer screening in China

Screening of hollow-organ cancers has been carried out for 16 years using the occult blood test. We are currently assessing the result of serial public cancer screening in China. Human cancers can be divided into 3 types: 1) surface cancer (15%), 2) hollow-organ cancer (65%), and 3) deep-seated solid-organ cancer (20%). Through an education program, the general population was taught to self-examine the body surface and to use a self-examination kit to detect any occult blood discharged from the hollow organs. On discovering positive or doubtful results, these subjects were referred to the hospital for a complete clinical checkup. A total of 10,000 people ages 40 to 70 years chosen from the university areas in Beijing were divided in a test group (5,000) and a control group (5,000). This study, which was carried out for 4 years, showed that 79 cancers were discovered in the test group, with an annual cancer detection rate of 482.5/10,000 population and a cancer mortality rate of 36.6/10,000. The control group showed an annual cancer mortality rate of 206/10,000 population. The difference has very marked statistical significance ( p< 0.001). During the same interval, an extensive cancer screening was carried out in the high-incidence areas. The Cancer Institute in Sihui city of Guangdong province discovered, by screening 758 persons in the outpatient department during a 2-year period, 16 cancers with 15 as nasopharyngeal cancer. From 1999 to 2000, another extensive public cancer screening in the high-incidence areas in Jiangsu province discovered 480 cancers from an 80,000 population. Together with the screening test carried out by Qin's self-examination kit before the National Supported Cancer Research Project on a population of 431,000, 1,272 cancers and more than 10,000 precancerous lesions have been detected. The self-examination kit and public cancer screening are highly important in the practice of public cancer screening.