Little appetite for conventional cancer treatment

This is the second of a series of three articles on traditional medicine and the dangers of using it to treat cancer

KUALA LUMPUR: Nur Hayati Sahak wishes for a time machine.

If there was one, she would go to a particular moment in 2016 when she was si ing in a general surgeon’s office at a private hospital in Selangor, listening to him tell her that her test results for breast cancer were inconclusive, even though her nipple excreted bloody discharge and her mammogram showed white spots. To be sure, the surgeon suggested she underwent exploratory surgery. She refused.

It was that moment, she told Bernama, when she had a choice: she knew something was wrong despite the results of the tests. But instead of ge ing a second opinion and going to a breast surgeon or an oncologist, she opted for traditional medicine to kill or at least contain the cancer growing in her breast.

The next three years would see her traveling all over Peninsular Malaysia seeking alternative and traditional treatment that would treat her cancer.

“A lot of wasted time. And wasted money. If I counted all the money I spent on traditional medicine, I would be rich,” said Nur Hayati, 44, laughing.

She estimated she spent about RM50,000 on alternative and traditional treatments such as the supernatural healing sessions with one witch doctor or bomoh in Kedah who told her he was giving her invisible chemotherapy through an invisible IV (intravenous) bag. Or the Palembang native in Perak who sold her homemade herbal poultices for which she paid RM1,000 a month. She also spent thousands of ringgit buying herbal supplements online, with supposed cancer-fighting chemicals.

When the pain got worse and pus started coming out of a rash under her right breast, she decided to go to a different hospital. Doctors diagnosed her with Stage IV breast cancer which had metastasised to her bones.

Nur Hayati is not alone in her regret in choosing alternative and traditional medicine as a cancer treatment. While her case is slightly different from what usually transpires – doctors say some patients who get a positive cancer diagnosis will refuse conventional treatment and opt for alternative or traditional medicine – it does highlight the difficulties in ge ing patients to trust modern medicine, long enough for them to stick around when the process is not smooth from the get-go.

On World Cancer Day on Feb 4, Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad announced in a press statement that the Malaysian National Cancer Registry recorded 168,822 new cancer cases from 2017 to 2021. Breast cancer, colorectal cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma cancer and liver cancer were the top five types of cancer reported during that period.

According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, cancer is the fourth leading cause of death in Malaysia, increasing from 10.5 percent in 2021 to 12.6 percent in 2022. Over 60 percent of cancers are still being detected at Stages III and IV.

Dr Dzulkefly also pledged to narrow the treatment gap and improve access to cancer specialists, treatment services and facilities, usually located in urban areas, for all.

Other than the fear of surgery and the side effects of chemotherapy, the lack of easy access is one of the reasons contributing to people’s reluctance to utilise modern medicine. While traditional or alternative medicine practitioners may be available in small towns, a cancer treatment facility with specialists may be hundreds of miles away.

For example, Kuala Lumpur Hospital serves about 25,000 cancer cases a year, including 3,700 new ones, in the central region such as Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Perak and part of Negri

Sembilan.

Cancer Survivors Malaysia president and founder Zuraini Kamal, who was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in 2012, said it is also a communication issue. She said doctors are too fond of jargon when giving the bad news to their patients.

“When I talk to people (cancer patients), they say they know, the doctor has explained. But they don’t really understand what the doctor explained,” she said.

There are other points to address in order to ease people’s fears and encourage them to take up conventional cancer treatment first instead of depending solely on alternative or traditional medicine.

Sunway Medical Centre Velocity consultant psychiatrist Dr Ryan Tee Chuan Keat said one way is to recognise that a positive diagnosis usually prompts the grieving process and acknowledge it.

“They will sort of grieve. It’s an emotional response to loss. It’s not grieving someone’s death. It can also be any form of loss – loss of relationship, occupation, even health in this sense,” he said.

Dr Hariyati Sharima Abd Majid, a consultant psychologist, agreed, adding that it is important to include faith when discussing people’s treatment and recovery.

“We cannot separate faith and belief from the recovery process. And when people include that in their consultation while medical healthcare professionals do not include that in the conversations they have, the patients will feel like they are not understood,” she said.

She added the objective is to include patients in treatment plans and give them back some semblance of control over their lives.

Traditional and alternative medicine in Malaysia ranges from mainstream practices such as acupuncture and massage to fringe supernatural healing by witch doctors and consuming herbal supplements, either sold by companies or agents. — Bernama