Cancer: Quitting smoking at any age makes difference — doctor

KUALA LUMPUR: It's never too late for long-time smokers who risk developing cancer to stop smoking at any age as it can extend their lifespan and improve the quality of their lives.

“However, men are sometimes under the misconception that having smoked for so long, nothing is going to change even if they quit now,” said Dr Arunah Chandran, Senior Assistant Director in the Cancer Unit at the Ministry of Health.

“Quitting at any age does make a difference in combating cancer,” she said during “Bernama Today” – the live talk show hosted by Gerard Ratnam and Tehmina Kaoosji aired over BNC CH502 on Monday.

She also said it was wrong to say smoking was not directly linked to cancer when research shows it is associated with 15 types of cancers.

“Smoking is definitely linked to cancers such as oral cancer, cancer of the stomach, lungs, bowels and the liver for example, she said.

Urging smokers to make lifestyle changes, she said they should resort to healthy lifestyles like exercising and better nutrition besides quitting smoking.

The risk of Malaysian men getting cancer is one in 10 compared with women where the risk factor is one in nine.

For men, the top three cancers are lung, colorectal and nasopharyngeal cancer while for women, they fall victim to breast, colorectal and cervical cancer.

Unfortunately, Dr Arunah said most cancers in Malaysia are diagnosed late, when they have reached Stage 3 and 4.

This creates a negative cycle whereby late diagnosis means treatment gets delayed so survival and cure rates are very low.

“So people associate cancer with death, its like a death sentence (and) that creates fear, so they don't want to get screened as they don't want to know,” she said.

While treatment and survivorship is important, the public needs to focus on risk reduction by stopping the smoking habit and reducing other related factors such as alcohol intake and obesity and overweight problems.

Turning to screening for cancer, she said it would be good to consult medical practitioners before going for the right screening to ensure appropriate follow-up treatment rather than walking into labs for random and sometimes pricey tests.