DR WEANG KEE HO

Malaysia

Technically, Dr Ho is not a scientist, but a statistician with a doctorate in statistics. “After my PhD, it sort of opened the doors that ‘Oh, the numbers that I liked can help me to understand so many important biological questions and I think that’s how the whole thing started.” The Malaysian statistician was chosen for her work in targeted screening for breast cancer. While working mainly on cardiovascular diseases in caucasians at the University of Cambridge, she got to meet teams that worked on breast cancer research in the UK, and eventually the teams in Malaysia.

“For the first time, I could use the knowledge that I have to answer the problems that were relevant to my population,” she explains. Breast cancer is expected to increase by 50% between 2012 and 2025 in Asia, with 5,000 women getting it every year in Malaysia. “What’s striking is the survival rate is only 49%, compared to 89% in Western countries.” This is largely due to early detection by mammogram screening, which many Western countries offer to all women for free unlike in Malaysia, Dr Ho said.

“Since we cannot afford to screen every woman, what if we had a tool or model that can help us locate the highrisk women and help these women?” Factors relating to breast cancer include density of the breast, lifestyle, physical activity and most importantly, genetics. Dr Ho’s risk calculator aims to analyse combined Asian genetics and is a collaborative effort between universities across Malaysia, Singapore and the UK. “Imagine a 40-year-old woman who gets screened annually and she lives until she’s 70. That’s having to do it continuously for 30 years, which is a lot of money and time. We can use this model to tell us what your risk is and then tailor the screening programme, because some women don’t need to start at 40. Some may start earlier or later.”