| Patients now can get their cancer screening results more quickly at a lower cost, as HCM City’s Tumor Hospital opened a molecular biology laboratory to detect cancer-causing genes on May 12.
New tests can detect cancer-causing genes more accurately than the previous method, which had been used for many years and required detection of pathogens and proteins, said Dr. Nguyen Van Thanh, head of the hospital’s Surgery Department.
Patients have had to send their samples to Malaysia or Singapore for results, he said, adding that by building the new laboratory, patients can have results within two days and costs only VND2.5 million (US$140). | 
