ERBIL () - A mobile cancer-screening unit in Erbil has conducted around 1,000 examinations over the past year, identifying 65 abnormal results, as the Kurdistan Regional Government increasingly combines early detection and community outreach with broader investment in cancer treatment and specialized healthcare.
reporter Renas Ali visited the mobile service, where women are receiving free breast cancer screening closer to their communities rather than relying solely on hospitals and specialized cancer centers.
Breast cancer accounts for approximately 20.5% to 22% of all cancer cases in Iraq, Ali reported, making early detection a growing public-health priority.
Patients interviewed by emphasized both the accessibility of the service and the importance of routine screening.
One woman said she had previously undergone ultrasound and other examinations before visiting the mobile unit for imaging. She urged women, particularly those aged 40 and above, to undergo regular screening.
Another patient said she came specifically because mammography was being provided free of charge and encouraged other women to be examined either through the mobile unit or at another healthcare facility.
Screening Brought Directly to Communities
The unit is operated through the Nursing & Midwifery Development Center (NMDC) and moves regularly between different locations.
Bafrin Sulaiman, a mammography technologist with the NMDC's Cancer Screening Mobile Unit, told that، "Approximately 1,000 women have been screened for cancer through our mobile team. The team usually visits different health centers across Erbil and its surrounding areas every two weeks. However, depending on need and demand, we may remain at one center for longer than two weeks."
Many of the women visiting the unit are undergoing breast screening for the first time, she said.
"The screening is primarily intended for women over the age of 40. However, if there is a strong family history of breast cancer, age is not a restriction, and women under 40 may also undergo the test,"she added.
Cost is an important factor. Sulaiman said examinations can be expensive at other facilities, making the free mobile service particularly attractive to women who might otherwise postpone screening.
At the same time, she said awareness remains limited among many patients despite increasing participation.
The mobile service was officially launched in Erbil in September 2025 through cooperation between the NMDC, the Breast Cancer Clinic, the Erbil General Directorate of Health and the Cancer Control Department of the KRG Ministry of Health.
Kurdistan Chronicle journalist Wladimir van Wilgenburg reported at the time that LDS Charities funded the unit, which was initially equipped with mammography and ultrasound technology.
The program was designed to move among primary healthcare centers in Erbil and surrounding areas, allowing family physicians to refer women for appropriate screening without requiring them to travel directly to a major cancer hospital.
Its longer-term plans included possible screening for cervical and colorectal cancers and expansion to other areas if the Erbil model proved successful.
The approximately 1,000 screenings reported by over the past year provide an early measure of how that community-based model is being used.
Prevention Becomes a Wider KRG Priority
The mobile unit fits within a broader shift in KRG health policy toward prevention and earlier diagnosis alongside treatment.
In July, the Ministry of Health launched a year-long cancer prevention campaign in Soran in partnership with the Barzani Charity Foundation and Soran University.
Health Minister Dr. Saman Barzanji said the initiative was intended to expand awareness, encourage routine screening and make prevention a central element of cancer policy.
Officials said the Soran program could become a model for similar campaigns elsewhere in the Kurdistan Region.
That preventive approach complements substantial investment in oncology treatment.
At Hewa Hospital in Sulaimani, one of the Region's main cancer treatment centers, the KRG allocated 25 billion Iraqi dinars for cancer medicines in 2025 and more than 3 billion dinars for medical equipment, according to Barzanji.
During the first six months of 2026, nearly 12 billion dinars was also spent on medicines and other supplies at the hospital.
The government has meanwhile been expanding specialized health infrastructure across the Kurdistan Region.
Official KRG figures released in July listed 79 operating hospitals, 31 specialized health centers and eight cancer hospitals and centers, including facilities under development.
A major specialist cancer hospital under construction in Erbil had reached 70% completion by August, with plans to bring diagnosis, chemotherapy, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy and surgery together at a single facility.
From Treatment to Earlier Intervention
The broader health reforms also include the expansion of advanced diagnostic equipment beyond the largest cities.
CT and MRI services have been extended to areas including Zakho, Choman, Halabja, Koya and Kalar, while specialized cardiac and other medical services have increasingly been decentralized.
The same principle underpins the cancer-screening vehicle: bringing medical services closer to patients rather than requiring every case to enter the healthcare system through a major urban hospital.
For breast cancer in particular, that matters because screening can identify abnormalities before symptoms prompt a hospital visit.
The 65 abnormal findings among the 1,000 examinations do not by themselves establish cancer diagnoses, but they indicate cases requiring further medical assessment.
For healthcare planners, such screenings can create an earlier point of intervention while also expanding awareness among women who may have had little previous information about mammography.
The KRG's developing cancer strategy therefore increasingly operates on two parallel tracks.
One is treatment: expanding oncology facilities, medicines, equipment and specialized hospitals.
The other is prevention: public education, routine screening and community-based services capable of reaching people before disease is diagnosed at a more advanced stage.
The mobile screening unit brings those policies together at street level.
By rotating through communities, offering examinations free of charge and referring abnormal findings for follow-up, it turns the broader objective of early detection into a service women can access close to home.
For many patients, as Sulaiman noted, it is also their first encounter with organized breast cancer screening, making the unit not only a diagnostic service, but an important entry point into preventive healthcare.
