Table 1.

Characteristics of the four national cancer screening programmes

	Initiation year	Target cancer sites	Target population	Coverage
Cancer Screening Programme in Rural Areas	2005	Oesophagus, stomach, liver, colorectum, lung, nasopharynx, and cervix*	High-risk individuals identified by questionnaire-based risk assessment	Organised screening in 249 counties or districts across 31 provinces and opportunistic screening in 748 hospitals across 31 provinces
Cancer Screening Programme in Huai River Areas	2007	Oesophagus, stomach, and liver	High-risk individuals identified by questionnaire-based risk assessment	38 counties or districts in four provinces
Cervical Cancer and Breast Cancer Screening Programme for Women (in Rural Areas)†	2009	Cervix and breast	Women aged 35–64 years	All counties or districts in 31 provinces
Cancer Screening Programme in Urban Areas	2012	Lung, colorectum, breast, oesophagus, stomach, and liver	High-risk individuals identified by questionnaire-based risk assessment or prescreening rapid tests‡	75 cities in 30 provinces§

^*Excluded from 2009 onwards to be incorporated in the Cervical Cancer and Breast Cancer Screening Programme for Women.

^†Not restricted to rural areas from 2019 onwards.

^‡Including faecal immunochemical test, hepatitis B surface antigen test, and Helicobacter pylori antibody test.

^§Excluding Shanghai.