A mobile clinic offering free screening for breast and cervical cancer will be going around Taguig City’s 38 barangays under a joint program of the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS) and the city government.
Dr. Marie Irene Sy of the City Health Office said the mobile clinic—a renovated passenger bus equipped with two beds—would first go to Barangays Ususan and Lower Bicutan.
Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano said the project would prioritize indigent residents who cannot afford to go to a hospital.
Personnel from PCS and City Health Office will administer the swab tests to those who want to be tested for cervical cancer.
Should “suspicious” lesions be found, these will be treated through cryotherapy.
“We freeze the suspicious lesions so that they will not spread anymore,” Sy said.
The patient will then be referred by barangay health workers for follow-up consultations in any Taguig health center.
As for patients with lumps in their breasts, they will be referred to a breast clinic located in the Taguig-Pateros District Hospital.
Those diagnosed with cancer will be enrolled under the city’s “Ating Dibdibin” program which offers free treatment.
Breast cancer is considered the most prevalent cancer among Filipinos, followed by cervical cancer, according to PCS executive director Dr. Rachel Rosario.
PCS president Dr. Corazon Ngelangel said 25 percent of those diagnosed with either breast or cervical cancer every year die of the disease.
But a higher rate of survival is expected with early detection, she added. Kristine Felisse Mangunay