The National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and Health and Welfare Ministry, along with five major pharmaceutical companies and 17 hospitals, have collaborated to establish Taiwan’s first local cancer gene database.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday morning, NHRI President Huey-Kang Sytwu (司徒惠康) said genomic data for nearly 2,000 cancer patients admitted to the participating hospitals has been cataloged so far. With this data, healthcare teams can provide personalized cancer treatment recommendations that target the individual characteristics of each patient and their disease.
National Health Insurance Administration Director General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) described this database as an important resource for drug research and development and health insurance benefits evaluation. As of May 1, national health insurance covers next-generation sequencing (NGS) for 19 types of cancer, an addition that will benefit an estimated 20,000 patients annually.
National Taiwan University Cancer Center Superintendent James Yang (楊志新) pointed out that NGS will further promote the advancement of precision cancer treatment in Taiwan, improving quality of care as well as patient quality of life.
Cancer has been a leading cause of death in Taiwan for more than forty years. In 2022, more than 200,000 people received a cancer diagnosis, and nearly 52,000 cancer patients died from the disease. Precision oncology is essential to lowering costs and improving outcomes for this devastating disease.