# Current status of the National Cancer Screening Program in Korea: history, achievements and future directions

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-lee-national-cancer-screening-program-korea-jpmph-2025/  
OnCo record `paper-lee-national-cancer-screening-program-korea-jpmph-2025` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

How Korea's free national screening grew from three cancers for people on Medical Aid in 1999 to six cancers for everyone insured by 2019.

## Summary

A review by the National Cancer Center's screening researchers. The government established the National Cancer Screening Program in 1999, initially offering stomach, breast and cervical cancer screening to Medical Aid beneficiaries. By 2019 it had widened its eligible population and its range to six cancers (stomach, liver, cervical, breast, colorectal and lung) for both Medical Aid recipients and health insurance beneficiaries. The authors report steadily rising participation, falls in the incidence of stomach, liver, colorectal and cervical cancer with more detection at precancerous stages, improved five-year survival for stomach, colorectal and breast cancer, and mortality-to-incidence ratios for major cancers well below the OECD average.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-03
- Journal: Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
- Year: 2025
- DOI: 10.3961/jpmph.25.268
- Authors: Lee K, Suh M, Choi KS
- Findings: Programme founded 1999 for stomach, breast and cervical cancer in Medical Aid beneficiaries.; Six cancers (stomach, liver, cervix, breast, colorectum, lung) offered to all insured people by 2019.
- What it means: Every insured Korean adult from 40 is offered a stomach endoscopy every two years, and people at high risk of liver cancer an ultrasound and blood test every six months. This review, by the researchers who run the programme, sets out how that came about.
- Caveats: A narrative review by the programme's own researchers, not an independent evaluation.; Falls in incidence and gains in survival have several causes; the review attributes them to screening without separating them.

## Sources

- J Prev Med Public Health 2025: https://doi.org/10.3961/jpmph.25.268
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40575987/

## Connected records

- key papers: [Effectiveness of the Korean National Cancer Screening Program in Reducing Gastric Cancer Mortality](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-jun-gastroenterology/)
- cancers: [Colorectal cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/colorectal/), [Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/gastric/), [Hepatocellular carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hcc/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/)
- institutions: [National Cancer Center Korea](https://onco.cc/institutions/ncc-korea/), [National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), South Korea](https://onco.cc/institutions/nhis-korea/)

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