Philips extends Indian cancer screening program

Philips Healthcare has completed a six-month pilot phase of its Asha Jyoti cancer screening program in India and has now made the program fully operational.

Along with partners Rad-Aid and the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) of Chandigarh, Philips developed the mobile unit program to provide breast cancer, cervical cancer, and osteoporosis screening to more than 500 women living in India's semiurban and rural areas. Nearly 50% of the women seen during the six-month pilot phase were from the poorest socioeconomic groups in India.

All women who visited the van during the pilot phase received results from their tests within seven to 10 days. In addition, seven women with suspicious mammography findings and 41 women with suspicious colposcopy findings received follow-up testing and treatment, if needed, at the PGIMER hospital.

The program aims to screen 2,000 to 3,000 women annually for at least the next four to five years.