{"entity":{"id":"screening-tw-oral","kind":"term","name":"Oral cancer screening programme in Taiwan","aka":["Taiwan national oral cancer screening programme","Taiwan oral mucosal screening"],"tldr":"Taiwan has screened for mouth cancer nationally since 1999; more early cancers were found, but a study of all men diagnosed from 2004 to 2022 found no fall in late-stage cancer or deaths.","summary":"Taiwan introduced a national oral cancer screening programme in 1999. An ecological study of the Taiwan Cancer Registry covering the 92,342 men diagnosed with oral cancer from 2004 to 2022 found that early-stage (stage 0 to 1) incidence rose from 6.6 to 14.5 per 100,000 men between 2004 and 2013, then fell to 11.8 by 2022, a period in which screening uptake declined (2015 to 2022). Late-stage (stage 2 to 4) incidence rose from 24.5 to 28.3 per 100,000 between 2004 and 2009 and was then stable, and oral cancer mortality rose from 14.4 to 16.6 per 100,000 over the whole period. The authors conclude that screening detected more early-stage cancer without reducing late-stage incidence or mortality, and that reducing betel quid and cigarette use should be the primary focus (Gao et al., BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 2026).","asOf":"2026-11-04","links":[{"label":"Gao et al., BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine 2026 (Taiwan oral screening outcomes)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2024-113340"}],"tags":["screening-programme"],"related":["national-screening-programmes"],"cancers":["oral-cavity-cancer"],"sections":["early-detection"],"technologies":["oral-visual-screening"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["screening"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Epidemiology & prevention"},"route":"/terms/screening-tw-oral/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"national-screening-programmes","kind":"term","name":"National cancer screening programmes","route":"/terms/national-screening-programmes/"},{"id":"screening","kind":"term","name":"Screening","route":"/terms/screening/"}],"cancer":[{"id":"oral-cavity-cancer","kind":"cancer","name":"Oral cavity cancer (mouth and tongue)","route":"/cancers/oral-cavity-cancer/"}],"section":[{"id":"early-detection","kind":"section","name":"Early Detection & Screening","route":"/fronts/early-detection/"}],"technology":[{"id":"oral-visual-screening","kind":"technology","name":"Oral cancer visual screening","route":"/technologies/oral-visual-screening/"}],"institution":[{"id":"hpa-taiwan","kind":"institution","name":"Health Promotion Administration, Ministry of Health and Welfare (Taiwan)","route":"/institutions/hpa-taiwan/"}]}}