Of the 779 Madeirans who participated in colorectal cancer screening, around 25% confirmed this diagnosis.
Pedro Ramos, regional secretary of Health and Civil Protection, said the same thing this morning, after a visit to the São Roque Health Center, as part of the screening for this oncological disease, which kicked off last year, in Calheta, having then toured the various municipalities.
As the government official highlighted, colorectal cancer is the second biggest cause of death in the Region and throughout the country, with between 150 and 200 new cases appearing per year, numbers that have followed an upward trend.
“People are more alert and resort more to the possibility of screening, analysis and colonoscopy and, naturally, by increasing the accuracy of diagnosis, the number of diagnosed cases also increases. But as they are being diagnosed early, mortality decreases”, warned the head of the Health department, thus launching an appeal for the population to attend this screening.
“Everyone, even if they do not have cancer, should be screened for colorectal cancer from the age of 50”, he stressed, reiterating that treatment in the early stages of the disease provides a greater chance of survival.
“This is the importance of screening, a preventive measure to combat certain diseases, which have their mortality, but when diagnosed early the results are completely different. It is this message that we have to pass on to the population of RAM, with the involvement of the Regional Screening Center”, he stressed.
In this regard, Pedro Ramos recalled that there are already five population-based screenings available in Madeira, each of which has age requirements for being called. In the case of breast cancer, the oldest AMR screening, women over 45 years of age are called, while in colorectal cancer the participants called are between 50 and 74 years old and in cervical cancer this examination is aimed at women aged 25 to 60. Children’s visual acuity screening is carried out in children from the age of 12 and diabetic retinopathy from the age of 12.
Call center will clarify all doubts
With the mission of clarifying all doubts regarding these screenings, the Region will soon have a call center.
“A call center will be created, where, in fact, all the questions that Madeirans need to ask to join this screening will be answered and then the screening works every week in the various health centers, with its own model”, announced the secretary regional, which also revealed the desire to simplify the call process, through the use of digital technology.
“At this moment, contact by telephone, e-mail or even by letter have been the models we have used [in the call for screenings], but we will always evolve towards removing paper and that digital transformation also remains as a basis of the RAM Screening Center”, he promises.