Chinese Medical Team Helps Build Local Breast-Cancer Care Services for Solomon Islands Women

Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumour affecting women in Solomon Islands, according to Ministry of Health and Medical Service (MHMS) data. Each year, roughly 128 local women are diagnosed with the condition, and 47 face severe disease outcomes. The high fatality rate represents a major health threat for women across the island nation.

Responding to a request from the MHMS, the 5th China Medical Team has deployed a breast-surgery specialist to the National Referral Hospital (NRH). Working from the ground up, the specialist, alongside local clinicians, is establishing a dedicated breast-care unit and delivering hands-on clinical training. Through standardised clinical support, the team addresses critical local challenges: late-stage cancer detection and limited treatment options for breast cancer patients.

Before this project launched, the Solomon Islands was short of standalone breast-surgery department or formal standardised protocols for breast tumour management. Many patients only received a diagnosis when their cancer had already reached an advanced stage. Those needing curative surgery were forced to seek care overseas, where high costs and long travel times caused many to miss their optimal treatment window.

Chinese Dr. Zhang Shiyong, Associate Chief Physician in breast surgery,quickly assessed local clinical conditions and set up formal breast-surgery services at NRH, filling the country’s long-standing gap in specialist breast-cancer treatment.

Rather than only delivering treatment, the Chinese expert prioritises skills transfer. Under the overall coordination of Dr. Rooney Jagilly, Chief of General Surgery at NRH, one local consultant physician and two resident doctors have received systematic training from Dr. Zhang covering breast-disease assessment, clinical management and surgical skills.

Thanks to continuous on-site clinical mentoring, the two residents can independently perform minimally invasive periareolar cosmetic surgery for benign breast tumours. Guided by Dr. Zhang, the local consultant physician has gradually taken on modified radical mastectomy procedures for breast cancer, growing the country’s home-grown surgical capability.

The unit runs a specialist breast clinic every Thursday morning, and reserves Mondays for breast-surgery operations. More than twenty of these curative mastectomies have been completed to date. Breast-cancer patients in Solomon Islands no longer need to leave the country to receive this essential surgery.

Each clinic session draws between 15-30 patients. These numbers paint a sobering picture of local disease burden: breast cancer accounts for 10.5%-25.0% of all clinic attendees, and most patients present with advanced-stage disease, which harms long-term prognoses.

Limited national healthcare infrastructure means pathological specimens must be sent overseas for laboratory testing. Breast-conserving surgery and sentinel-lymph-node biopsy cannot yet be offered routinely. Modified radical mastectomy, a proven and reliable intervention, remains the primary treatment option.

For advanced-stage patients who cannot undergo immediate surgery, the medical team holds multidisciplinary case reviews. These patients are referred to oncology for neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Once tumours shrink and disease down-staging is achieved, patients are reassessed for possible surgery to improve survival chances for severely ill people.

Development of the domestic breast-care system moves forward steadily. Working with local surgical colleagues, Dr. Zhang Shiyong is building an integrated care pathway spanning screening, outpatient consultations, surgery and referrals for breast conditions. Through intra-operative teaching and bedside ward-round coaching, she is passing on a complete set of standardised breast-disease management know-how to local practitioners.

A single surgery saves an individual patient,a full medical system delivers long-term protection. The practical support provided by Chinese breast-surgery specialists is easing the toll of breast cancer on Solomon Islands women. It fulfils the aid goal of treating serious illnesses locally without patients travelling abroad, while building a friendship bridge through China-Solomon Islands health cooperation.