Mount Miriam Cancer Hospital’s Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Dr Rakesh Raman presented a talk titled “What Must We Know about Breast Cancer” recently.
The talk was organised by Klinik Derma Sivasanta as part of their community outreach programmes.
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer affecting women in Malaysia.
However, till now, cancer is still seen as a stigmatised disease. People fear to talk about cancer. General awareness and knowledge about the signs and symptoms of common cancers among the community is still poor.
Some may view cancer as ‘death penalty’ despite the disease being treatable. Some try to approach unapproved practices to treat cancer and this leads to delay in seeking proper cancer treatments, reducing their survival rate.
Cancer awareness is always important to reach out to the general public. It educates the public on the cancer types, signs & symptoms, methods of cancer treatment, availability of cancer treatment facilities, etc.
When members of the public are well-equipped with cancer related information, it encourages them to seek treatment, and reduce the cancer risk with early detection.
Subsequently, it increases the survival rate and prolongs the life span as well as improves the quality of life as compared to those who are diagnosed late.
Present was Klinik Derma Sivasanta, a charitable project of The Temple of Fine Arts coordinator P. Murugiah and other committee members.