Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said the government would roll out screening schemes targeting lung, liver and cervical cancer in Hong Kong.

He said cancer is the “top killer” in the city that takes an average of 15,000 lives per year, stressing the importance of early diagnosis.

Speaking after a Commercial Radio programme on Sunday, Lo said the government will look for carriers of hepatitis B -- the most common cause of liver cancer -- under a co-payment scheme.

“We will be incorporating it into our existing chronic disease co-care programme, which at present is targeting high blood pressure, high [blood] sugar and also for high cholesterol level,” he said.

“We will be using the same platform and the same kind of model for co-care, so it follows the same situation. The percentage of subsidy in co-care will be roughly in half-half.”

The government would announce the programme within this year, Lo said.

He said authorities would roll out screening in phases and target high-risk populations, including those born before 1988 who did not receive the universal hepatitis B vaccination and family members of the virus carriers.

Lo also said the government would commission a local university to conduct lung cancer screening with artificial intelligence, which is likely to begin early next year.