Siriraj Hospital's Faculty of Medicine has invented a cheaper liquid-based cytology kit that can effectively detect the onset of cervical cancer.
"These liquid-based cytology kits are more sensitive to detecting cancer cells than pap smears, but we have had to import them before," Somsak said yesterday, explaining that importing the kits made cytology tests three times more expensive than pap smears.
For years, tests through the liquid-based cytology kits cost between Bt650 and Bt950. Now, this locally- made version could cut this cost down significantly.
More than 6,000 women come down with cervical cancer every year, and about 2,600 of them die annually, an average of about seven people a day.
"Cervical cancer is a major public-health issue in Thailand," Dr Chanchai Vantanasiri said in his capacity as the head of the faculty's Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department. He added that cervical cancer could be treated through surgery if it is detected early.
However, Chanchai said symptoms were only obvious after the cancer had already advanced.
The faculty's dean Dr Teerawat Kulthanan said the new kit was very effective in detecting abnormalities in the cervix. "The test process is also easy," he said, adding that his faculty would soon pass on the know-how to health professionals across the country.
