‘Closing the Care Gap’

 

From Dr Soh Yih Harng and Dr Moy Foong Ming

Cancer is the leading cause of death around the world. In 2020, it was responsible for 10 million deaths, or about one in six deaths.

In the same year, there were 29,530 cancer deaths, which contributed to 15.4% of medically certified deaths in Malaysia. If all deaths had been medically confirmed, the proportion of cancer-related mortality would be higher.

By 2040, the number of cancer cases in Malaysia is expected to double. The growing number of cancer cases will become a major health problem as it has a significant impact on the community and the country’s health care system.

In view of the disease burden of cancer, World Cancer Day was established to raise public awareness of cancer and to increase efforts to improve access to quality care, screening, early detection, treatment, and palliative care.

In conjunction with World Cancer Day 2023 today, the theme is “Closing the Care Gap”, which is about identifying disparities in cancer care and taking action to make the required effort to overcome them.

Urgent action is needed to increase cancer screening, detection, and diagnosis in the early stages to improve the chances of survival for cancer patients.

Certain cancer treatments (such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery) or cancer itself can suppress or weaken the immune system.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, cancer patients were at higher risk for Covid-19 infection with severe symptoms. The pandemic had also resulted in lower screening rates due to disrupted screening services. This ultimately caused patients to be presented late for treatment.

Delay diagnosis is associated with a poor prognosis. The five years survival rate for cancer in Malaysia is 65% compared with the United States (90.2%), and Singapore (81%). Even though Malaysia is an upper-middle-income country with a good healthcare system, the cancer survival rates are still below the average of developed nations.

This may be due to challenges such as poor cancer awareness and low screening rates delays in cancer detection and diagnosis, and delays in obtaining medical care.

Breast cancer and cervical cancer are two of the main causes of death for cancer patients in Malaysia. However, the number of individuals who receive screenings is far short of expectations. Breast cancer screening ranged between 3.6% and 30.9% in the general population, and 80.3% among the medical personnel.

A lack of understanding on the importance of regular cancer screening, and a lack of support from family members are among the causes of the low response for cancer screening.

In conjunction with the World Cancer Day – which falls on Feb 4, 2023 – let’s unite to close the gap in cancer care through regular cancer screening. - FMT

Dr Soh Yih Harng is a public health doctorate (DrPH) candidate.

Dr Moy Foong Ming is with the Centre for Epidemiology & Evidence-Based Practice, Department of Social Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya.

The views expressed are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.