Oncologists partner with media to help raise cancer awareness

KUCHING: The Malaysian Oncological Society (MOS) and its key members are partnering with The Borneo Post to publish a series of articles covering various topics on cancer in Sarawak to raise awareness of the disease.

An eight-week series will begin in thesundaypost today, with a focus on delivering key information regarding the top five most common cancers found in Sarawak along with information regarding cancer statistics, cancer treatments, and palliative care for the terminally ill.

Sarawak MOS committee chair Dr Voon Pei Jye said the partnership aimed to help “dispel some of the common misconceptions the general public have on cancer and its treatments to reduce the number of late stage diagnosis and treatment rejection”.

MOS president Dr Matin Mellor said the group also plans to help raise awareness among healthcare professionals who might play a vital role in fighting cancer such as radiologists, nurses and general practitioners (GPs).

“One of the problems with cancer is that it tends to present late and usually the first port of call is our GPs. The whole idea is to help encourage our colleagues to think of cancer as a primary diagnosis because if you miss cancer, the consequences of that can be dire,” he explained.

MOS will hold its 29th Annual Scientific Conference (Ascomos) 2017 at Pullman Kuching on Dec 8-10 – the first time the conference is being held in Sarawak.

Themed ‘Pushing the Boundaries of Cancer – Together’, it aims to give awareness of the newest cancer research findings among healthcare professionals involved in oncology.

This week’s cancer awareness article, which is on Page 13, is on the truths and myths about cancer.