Materia Medica Malaysiana

Childhood cancers doubled in past 10 years

Childhood cancer cases in Peninsular Malaysia have more than doubled over the past 10 years, Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Meng said.

He said figures from a report conducted between 1993 and 1995 recorded 475 cases of childhood cancers, compared to 1,163 new cases in 2002 as shown by the National Cancer Registry.

Chua said parents should seek early treatment for cancer and give full co-operation to the medical staff for their children to undergo treatment.

“Childhood cancer is a curable disease, but it is best cured if treated early,” he said.

He said although the diagnosis of cancer was often associated with the grim prospect of death, the good news was that experience in treatment of those illness was remarkable.

Childhood cancers had an average of above 70% chances of being completely cured, compared to a rate of between 20% and 30% in adult cancers, he said yesterday after launching a book entitled Children with Cancer – A Parent’s Guide.

Chua added that in some forms of childhood cancers, 90% of children suffering from the disease could expect a cure.

“It may sometimes take up to two-and-a-half years of treatment but once cured a child may live like any other child, go to school and be successful in life,” he added.

He said the ministry was in the process of studying the feasibility of setting up a National Institute for Cancer and planned to make the proposal in the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

“We know the importance of setting up a specific institute and will have to train our local specialists to conduct research and development for treatments,” he said.

He said the Government would also be upgrading the treatment facilities in Penang, Johor Baru, Kota Baru and Kota Kinabalu in the next few years to turn them into regional centres for treating childhood cancers.

He pointed out that the registry found that blood cancer or leukaemia constituted nearly half of all childhood cancer cases in both sexes.

“The second most common childhood cancers are those of the brain for boys and the eye for girls,” he said.

Among the early signs to look out for are unexplained fever, weight and appetite loss, easy bruising and bleeding for leukaemia, while for eye cancer signs include white spots in the eyes, blindness and bulging eyeballs.