Women in poorer neighbourhoods are more likely to suffer advanced breast cancer because of poor health care education and services, according to a survey.
Relatively few of them get regular breast X-rays and checkups, meaning their cancers are detected at a more advanced stage than in women in the rest of the city, the Breast Cancer Foundation concludes from a study of more than 5,000 patients.
In releasing the results yesterday, the foundation urged women on low incomes to visit its facilities for subsidised regular screenings.
Foundation chief Eliza Fok Ho Yi-wah urged women to start regular screening for breast cancer at age 40, saying subsidies were available. 'Screening fees and waiting time should not prevent breast health for anyone,' she said.
Patients living on Hong Kong Island were twice as likely to have had a mammogram than women living in Kowloon or the New Territories, according to the study, which used figures compiled in September.
In the poorest district, Kwun Tong, 80 per cent of breast cancer patients had never had a mammogram before their tumours were discovered. That dropped to 70 per cent, in North Kwai Tsing and Tuen Mun.