ROCHE (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, organised its first Life Talk Series on Oct 23, 2021 in conjunction with its 125th anniversary.
The first Life Talk session was on Women’s Health and the panelists included Dr Azura Ahmad, Consultant Medical Oncologist; Prof Dr Woo Yin Ling, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologist; Nurul Izzah, Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh and Choo Mei Sze, a cancer advocate & colorectal cancer survivor.
Dr Murallitharan M, Consultant Public Health Physician and Managing Director of National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM), moderated the session.
“The incidence of all cancers in Malaysia is expected to increase almost 80 per cent from 2020 to 2040 (from 48,639 to 86,666 new cases). Poor awareness and knowledge about the signs and symptoms of common cancers is likely to contribute to a delay in help-seeking, diagnosis and treatment and, in turn, leads to poor survival outcomes”, said Dr Muralli.
“Empowering patients to attend routine screening and to seek early treatment will increase their chance of survival and probability of cure. Many patients present late for various reasons; from fear to lack of awareness,” said Prof Woo.
“With evolution of science, personalised diagnosis and treatment, doctors have more to offer compared to before. However, besides the advancement of treatment options, improving the health system, particularly health financing, should be the next revolution for patients.”
Dr Azura also said advances in medical sciences had led us to better understand the changes within a patient’s cancer cells that can be targeted to stop cancer growth. Over the last two decades, precision cancer therapy has revolutionised cancer diagnosis and new cancer treatments, helping doctors transform therapy for their patients.
“Continued understanding of cancer genomics has played an important role in creating more effective modern therapies, making way for personalised medicine to help patients better,” Dr Azura added.
Wong Sit Yin, Healthcare Access
& Corporate Affairs Director from Roche (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd said: “For 125 years we have been delivering better ways to diagnose, prevent and treat diseases to improve the lives of millions.
“Our current product pipeline is the strongest in our history, and we are opening up entirely new opportunities through digitisation and insights into healthcare data.”
— The Health
