Addressing cancer management issues in Malaysia
CANCER is one the major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide, and with predictions of heavy increases in rates of incidence, the disease will be a major concern for many nations, especially poorer or developing countries where rates of most commonly seen cancers like breast cancer is set to almost double in the near future.
Additionally, the process of screening for early detection could also be delegated to other healthcare professionals such as general practitioners who are in the front-line of healthcare, allowing for earlier detections and also better distribution of man power in oncology.
Prompt administration of affordable treatments of cancer should also be practised to help potentially reduce financial loss and premature deaths.
Besides that, other recommendations of the study suggested that enhancing cancer registration and increased innovation in developing awareness about cancer could also be helpful in the long run. Politics and awareness On the topic of developing awareness, Dr Matin shares that the latest George Institute for global health policy roundtable titled “Turning Action Results into Policy on Southeast Asia 2015” had identified several points centred on how to mobilise society to establish an effective cancer control programme.
The key points are to create a common message of cancer and communicate that message across all media platforms available and directed towards politicians, healthcare professionals and the public at large.
Politicians should be especially emphasised on as according to the roundtable findings, political support is necessary to ensure that support and enactment of appropriate legislation that is beneficial to the prevention of cancer, can come to fruition.
For example, regulation on tobacco control and legislation on vaccination programmes can help curb tobacco and virus-induced cancer rates on a large scale.
Following that, better resource allocations for national cancer control programmes can also be achieved by highlighting that cancer is not just a health issue but also a societal and economical issue.
For healthcare professionals and the general public, Dr Matin says the message is equally important as it can dispel some of the common myths of cancer being a death sentence and help patients get over their defeatist attitude and accept treatment earlier.
“Overall, the way forward is to collaborate with many stakeholders, both in private and public, to spread the message. And to do this, we need generous support from the government, talented and willing individuals as well as citizen groups.”
And an organisation to champion this cause is the MOS which will be holding its Annual Scientific Congress 2017 (Ascomos) for the very first time in Sarawak from Dec 8 to 10.
The two-day conference with the tagline “Pushing the boundaries of cancer — together” will focus on talks and discussions on cancer and give special focus to issues affecting cancer patients with particular interest to patients in Sarawak itself.
Some of the topics to be discussed are truths and myths of cancer, the essence of palliative care, breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, Malaysia’s cancer statistics and more. About Dr Matin Mellor Dr Matin is the current president of the MOS and a clinical oncologist at the cancer and radiosurgery centre in Subang Jaya medical centre.
Outside of his work, Dr Matin is a staunch believer that Malaysia’s cancer management needs to be continually improved on to do more and better for our cancer patients.
He believes this can be done through empowerment of the public and conducting forums regularly to help educate the public on cancer and help arm them with the knowledge to make informed decisions.