No matter how a person gets lung cancer, it should not impact the care they get or the empathy they receive.

Big tobacco is transitioning their business from cigarettes to vape, e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn devices.

Approximately 49,000 people in Malaysia were estimated to be newly diagnosed with cancer in 2020.

The government has repeatedly emphasised its commitment to the implementation of improved cancer control and prevention strategies to reduce incidence, mortality and increase cancer survival.

Ignoring cancer care now may turn one public health crisis into many others.

Last year, the Ministry of Health released the findings of the Malaysia National Cancer Registry Report 2012–2016. The findings were bleak.

We need to increase early detection, expand effective treatment, provide care, and improve survival.

We need local-level, granular data that is integrated with social and economic indicators.

The health component of the upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan must have a solid commitment towards ensuring that health initiatives which address the NCD crisis are grounded in reality and are fully funded.

With continued uncertainty surrounding the end of the partial lockdown which now into the second month, many patients are facing trouble with referrals and rescheduling of their treatments and surgeries.

“The release of this report gives us an opportunity to take stock, review and evaluate the successes and failures from implementation of this plan. We should know what investments worked, those that didn’t and respond to gaps in resources.”

This World Cancer Day, it cannot be business as usual.

In order to secure the best possible outcome in responding to the threat of NCDs, the Ministry of Health should get the funds it needs to fully operationalise PeKa B40 as part of the National Strategic Plan For Non-Communicable Disease 2016-2025.

We must stop blaming patients for defaulting their treatment or for not coming forward earlier for diagnosis.

There has been no move to earmark the revenue collected for the purpose of health, specifically and directly funding non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention, control and treatment.

We recommend, as a pilot programme, that the Government earmarks an initial 5 percent from the collected sin tax revenue to strengthen NCD health promotion and treatment, focusing initially on diabetes and cancer.

Patients must continue to be at the centre of policy-making which directly affects them.

More than 80 percent of these recommendations came from patients and their caregivers.

The Cancer Care Working Group aims to help influence public policies which improve outcomes, treatment and care of cancer in Malaysia.

In the 2016 edition of the Economist’s War on Cancer, Malaysia is estimated to record a 49% increase in breast cancer cases between 2012 to 2025. This is worrying as Malaysia recorded the lowest rate of five-year survivorship rate as well as the highest rate of mortality and incident rates in the region.

Increasing existing treatment coverage and the quality of care available should not be described by mere words, rhetoric and grand announcements but by firm commitments from both the public and private sector.

The financial realities of living with cancer.

Reforms in cancer care are needed.

Cancer is the 4th most common cause of death in the country.

Malaysia as an upper middle income country has the opportunity and ability to improve its response to cancer.

Sugar subsidies will wipe out any revenue gained from SSB tax increase.

Malaysia currently has one of the lowest sugar prices in the world. This is not something to be proud of.

We need local-level, granular data that is integrated with social and economic indicators.

The health component of the upcoming 12th Malaysia Plan must have a solid commitment towards ensuring that health initiatives which address the NCD crisis are grounded in reality and are fully funded.

With non-communicable diseases increasing significantly each year and cases of people with chronic kidney disease having more than one or more comorbidities such as diabetes, this is an ongoing funding problem that will not go away simply by excluding a group of people.

The Disease Control Division of the Ministry of Health and the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy organised a closed-door roundtable discussion with multi-sectoral stakeholders on 16 December 2019 to discuss diabetes in Malaysia.

Addressing diabetes prevention is not simply about ‘health’.

The government is already spending billions of ringgit on managing existing cases in the public healthcare system and the predominantly curative approach cannot be sustained.  

Fighting non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancer and obesity is a long game and requires vision, committed investments and political will to ensure that we are able to reap the results of a healthier people and nation.

There has been no move to earmark the revenue collected for the purpose of health, specifically and directly funding non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention, control and treatment.

We recommend, as a pilot programme, that the Government earmarks an initial 5 percent from the collected sin tax revenue to strengthen NCD health promotion and treatment, focusing initially on diabetes and cancer.

Earmarking this revenue would help address the shortfall in funding for prevention programmes.

Influencing what people buy by making healthy food options more affordable to increase their consumption has been shown to be the most effective policy.