Anti-cancer associations in Italy and China on Tuesday initialed an accord which will see Italian experts help the Asian nation carry out its first mass screening program for breast tumours.
A preliminary agreement establishing the alliance between Italy's LILT and China's CACA was signed at the health ministry in Rome during a bilateral workshop on approaches to tumour prevention.
CACA is asking Italy to help train specialists to carry out the screening and to analyse the resulting data.
LILT Chairman Francesco Schittulli said the agreement is a testament to the quality of Italy's approach to fighting tumours. "We are second in the world for the quality of health services and we are also top for longevity. It's no wonder the CACA wanted to collaborate with us," he said.
Cases of breast cancer have doubled in China in the last 20 years and deaths from it have gone up 39% in the last decade alone, according to CACA President Guangwei Xu.
"It's a real emergency which is hitting young women aged between 30 and 40," he said.
Xu said that causes included changing eating habits and pollution. He also said there could be a link between this type of tumour and the growing tendency or women to decide against having children.
To confront the epidemic CACA is to screen about a million Chinese women.
"It's an enormous challenge. Tests are not free in China and we're using private finding to carry out the programme," XU said.
LILT said the results of the study would also provide importat data for the study of precocious breast cancer in women.
