The national plan of action against cancer 2015-2019 has been finalized and will be submitted in the next few days to President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, head of oncology services at Pierre and Marie Curie Centre (CPMC), Dr Kamel Bouzid said Friday in Algiers.
"Dr. Messaoud Zitouni, appointed by the President to implement the cancer plan, will submit in the coming days the final plan to the Head of State," Dr Bouzid said at the International Congress on cancer, held by the Algerian Company for Medical Oncology (SAOM) in collaboration with the Arab Medical Association against Cancer (AMAAC).
The implementation of the national cancer plan will start in 2015 and the results will be assessed in 2019, he added.
In addition, Dr. Bouzid stressed that radiotherapy appointments were reduced to 4 weeks at the most after the cancer is diagnosed.
The opening of the new anti-cancer centres, namely in Batna, Setif and Annaba will take care of all patients with this disease in a timely manner.
As for the incidence of cancer, the oncology department at the University Hospital of Blida and member of the AMAAC office, Dr. Ada Bounedjar recalled that Algeria records 45,000 new cancer cases annually.
The most common cancer in Algeria is the breast cancer which records 10,000 new cases annually, followed by colon cancer with 4,000 new cases and lung cancer with 3,500 new cases each year.
Source: APS