Breast cancer foundations pledge $23.6 million to China prevention program

Foundations in China and the United States jointly launched in Beijing on Thursday an effort of 150 million yuan ($23.6 million) to promote awareness and prevention of breast cancer.

The Breast Cancer Community Education and Mobilization project was organized by the China Women's Development Foundation and the US-based Susan G. Komen, the world's largest breast cancer group.

The project seeks to recruit businesses, nonprofit organizations, the media, medical organizations, professionals and donors to combat breast cancer through publicity, routine examinations, patient support, and research and training.

The financial investment will take place over the next three years.

In 2010, 208,000 Chinese women were diagnosed with breast cancer, representing more than 12 percent of the world's new patients. The 2015 Chinese cancer annual report ranks breast cancer as the most prevalent cancer among Chinese women.

"We aim to help more patients promote social awareness and women's recognition of the disease, improve patients' life quality and reduce the death rate," said Zhen Yan, vice president of the China Women's Development Foundation.

Judith Salerno, Komen's president and CEO, said that her organization, like the women's foundation and the All-China Women's Federation, believes "all women can live healthy and productive lives, free from breast cancer when they have regular access to breast cancer screening".

The outcomes for women with breast cancer can be significantly improved when they have access to the best treatment, she said.

The women's foundation started Pink Alliance, a breast cancer screening program, in January 2014, to provide women with services such as training and patient support.

The government has provided free cervical cancer and breast cancer screening to women in China's rural areas since 2009. In the past six years, 44 million women have been screened.