Tag: #cancer

Health

A preventable cancer keeps spreading

Sabah Insights

Colorectal cancer patients are getting younger

From left: Dr Ida Normiha Hilmi, gastroenterologist and hepatologist of the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre, Dr Raman Muthukaruppan Chettiar, president of the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Dr Raja Affendi Raja Ali, dean and professor of medicine at Sunway University. –
Picture courtesy of Sri Pelancongan Sabah.

Gastroenterologists (specialists in digestive diseases) may differ on diagnosis and treatment of many digestive and liver disorders. But they are agreed that colorectal or colon cancer is the most preventable, treatable and beatable cancer. And this has become their mantra. But who is listening? Colon cancer has unwittingly become the second most prevalent cancer after breast cancer in Sabah. What is worrying is that patients are getting younger. Many of them are in their 30s or even younger. Four-fifths of them turn up in later stages of the disease, according to Dr Raman Muthukaruppan, president of the Malaysian Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. And this has sent doctors searching for answers.

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Health

A not so rosy picture of cancer care

Sabah Insights

Prohibitive costs deny patients of the best treatment

Dr Ros Suzanna Ahmad Bustaman

The mention of cancer invariably conjures up a death sentence. It is Sabah’s fourth leading cause of death. Every year about 1,200 people die of it while about 1,400 new cases are reported. Oncologists (cancer specialists) however say many of these deaths could have been prevented as many cancers are treatable, if not curable, if only they were discovered early. And the latest drugs and state-of-the-art equipment can help patients with advance stage of the disease survive. Top health officials tried hard last month in Kota Kinabalu to paint a rosy picture of Sabah’s cancer care at the 34th Annual Scientific Congress of the Malaysian Oncological Society (Ascomos). Reality however speaks otherwise.

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