Cancer: Push for awareness

NST: It is frightening and it is eating into our vitals. Every year at least 40,000 Malaysians get cancer.
Health Minister Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek said: "This is only a conservative figure. There are lots of deaths that are reported as due to old age."
The National Cancer Registry received 42,985 cancer notifications in 2003, of which 23,746 were "unique incident" cancer cases. About 97 in every 100,000 men suffer from cancer while the rate for women is 127.6 per 100,000 women.
Dr Chua said the most common cancers among Malaysians were those affecting the liver, breast, stomach, colon, cervix and prostate.
The five most frequent cancers in children, newborn to 15 years old, are leukaemia, cancers of the brain, lymphoma, connective tissue and kidney.
The most common cancers afflicting those aged 15 to 49 are nasopharynx, leukaemia, lymphoma, lung, colon and rectum in men and cancers of the breast, cervix, colon, uterus, lung and rectum in women.
"We are concerned with the growing number of Malaysians suffering from various types of cancer and are in the midst of finalising the Cancer Prevention Action Plan," he said after attending the ministry’s Deeparaya Open house today.
In welcoming the participation of non-governmental organisations in creating greater awareness of cancer prevention, Dr Chua requested them to first discuss their programmes with his ministry.
"NGOs must ensure that whatever tests they carry out are effective as we do not want a false positive," said Dr Chua when referring to the National Cancer Council’s (Makna) move to hold a big cancer campaign in February with an allocation of RM1.1 million.
He said another important aspect was the issue of medical ethics.
"I am not sure how the NGO plans to do the campaign and how it intends to handle patients detected with cancer," he said, adding the ministry encouraged primary prevention through education, such as campaigns against smoking .
Makna president Datuk Mohd Farid Ariffin, when contacted, said they did discuss the issue with a desk officer at the ministry and were given the go-ahead.
"Since the minister has brought the issue up, we do not mind following up our proposed campaign with ministry officials," he said, adding that they plan to hold the campaign particularly in the rural areas.
He said Makna would concentrate only on breast, cervical, stomach and prostate cancers. "We want to create cancer awareness in as many people in both urban and rural areas but our concentration is on rural because there are many people who cannot afford to come to towns for screening and tests.
"We hope to collaborate with the ministry and the National Population and Family Development Department so that those detected with cancer can be referred for further checks and treatment to Makna and the ministry," he added.