Staff Writer
According to Dr. Sheikha Abu Sheikha, Director of Early Detection Programs at Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), plans are in the works to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and teleradiology into Screen for Life, a countrywide cancer screening program.
“Screen for Life, a program for screening for breast and bowel cancer, began in 2016. Since then, the program has evolved and advanced. We are currently concentrating on bolstering the breast and bowel cancer screening programs through the addition of teleradiology, where we can employ radiologists’ skills from outside the country to read the images, according to Dr. Sheikha.
In order to prioritize the photographs of participants in breast and bowel cancer screening, we are also including artificial intelligence. This will enable us to determine which suspected images should be read first. In addition, she said, “we are concentrating on teaching our workforce to apply the best practices in accordance with our rules.
According to Dr. Sheikha, steps are being done to expand the scope of the Screen for Life national cancer screening program in order to build on the success of the country’s current early cancer screening program.
Women between the ages of 45 and 69 are encouraged to take part in routine screening for breast cancer at one of the health centers, and people between the ages of 50 and 74 are encouraged to do the same for bowel cancer.
“Screen for Life is well-liked by the general people. About half of those who were eligible have been screened. It’s encouraging to see that people are accepting, coming in for the screening, and being aware of the advantages, according to Dr. Sheikha.
According to her, “We are conducting feasibility studies to add other cancer types, such as lung cancer, cervical cancer, and thyroid cancers to the screening program.”
Breast cancer, which made up 16.58% of all cancer cases and 9.44% of cases among all nationalities, was the most prevalent type of cancer, according to the National Cancer Registry. 6.33% of all cancer cases were thyroid cancer, making it the third most prevalent cancer.
“Among females of all nationalities, thyroid cancer was the second-most prevalent cancer, accounting for 39.15% of all female cancer cases. While prostate cancer accounted for 9.52% of all cancer cases in men, colorectal cancer was more prevalent in males, accounting for 10.93% of all male cancer cases.
