A breast-surgery specialist deployed by the 5th China Medical Team is working with local clinicians to set up a dedicated breast-care unit at the National Referral Hospital (NRH), the Ministry of Health and Medical Services said. The team responded to a request from the ministry, and the specialist is also providing hands-on clinical training.
Ministry data put breast cancer ahead of any other malignant tumour among women in the country, with roughly 128 diagnosed each year and 47 facing severe disease outcomes. Before the project began, the ministry said, the country had no standalone breast-surgery department and no formal standardised protocols for managing breast tumours, and patients who needed curative surgery had to seek care overseas, where cost and travel time meant many missed the best window for treatment.
Dr Zhang Shiyong, an Associate Chief Physician in breast surgery, set up formal breast-surgery services at NRH, the ministry said. Training by Dr Zhang has gone to one local consultant physician and two resident doctors, covering breast-disease assessment, clinical management and surgical skills, with the work coordinated by Dr Rooney Jagilly, Chief of General Surgery at NRH.
Both residents now work on their own on benign breast tumours, using minimally invasive periareolar cosmetic surgery, the ministry said, while the consultant physician has taken on modified radical mastectomy for breast cancer patients under Dr Zhang's guidance.
Breast clinics are held on Thursday mornings and operations on Mondays. More than twenty curative mastectomies have been completed to date, and each clinic session draws between 15 and 30 patients. Breast cancer accounts for 10.5 per cent to 25.0 per cent of all clinic attendees, the ministry said, and most patients present with advanced-stage disease.
Pathological specimens must still be sent overseas for laboratory testing, and breast-conserving surgery and sentinel-lymph-node biopsy are not yet available as routine, the ministry said, leaving modified radical mastectomy as the main treatment. Patients with advanced disease who cannot have immediate surgery are discussed in multidisciplinary case reviews and referred to oncology for neoadjuvant chemotherapy, then reassessed for possible surgery once their tumours shrink.
Source: Drawn from "Chinese Medical Team Helps Build Local Breast-Cancer Care Services for Solomon Islands Women", published by the Solomon Islands Government portal under the Ministry of Health and Medical Services on 23 October 2026. https://solomons.gov.sb/chinese-medical-team-helps-build-local-breast-cancer-care-services-for-solomon-islands-women/