Barriers to effective treatment of breast cancer

ACCORDING to the 2018 Globocan (a project of the International Agency for Research on Cancer) report, the lifetime risk of cancer among women is one in four. The seriousness of the disease is strongly influenced by the stage at which it is detected; at its very early stage, breast cancer is highly curable. In Malaysia, patients are diagnosed at 10 years or younger than their Western counterparts.

The majority of breast cancer patients continue to be diagnosed at a relatively late stage, and locally advanced cancers constitute over 50% of all patients managed, resul­ting in higher cause-specific death. This is due to poor awareness, lack of screening programmes, unequal distribution of dedicated facilities, scarcity of resources, and cultural restrictions and limitations.