KUALA LUMPUR: According to a new study, Malay women who have late-stage breast cancer have been discovered to have a higher mortality rate when compared to Chinese and Indian women. The scientific journal PLoS ONE, in study published earlier this year revealed that “58.5 percent of Malay patients survive five years after they are first diagnosed, in comparison to 75.8 percent of Chinese and 68 percent of Indians.” The study, however, did not attempt to give an explanation for the results. Malay women were also found to be diagnosed at a significantly younger age and with larger tumors, the study said. According to the report, the Malay women's tumors were nearly 10 mm larger than Chinese women and five mm larger than Indian women. The report has seen a number of women health leaders call on the government to boost preventive healthcare for women in the country in order to track and diagnose breast cancer at earlier stages. “I think it is vital for Malaysia and Malay women that the government look closely at this report and understand where efforts should be put,” said government health consultant and executive Jihad Abdullah. She told Bikyamasr.com that “the government has already shown it is ready to push forward on these plans and hopefully concrete efforts will be made shortly.” The study was a collaborative effort between researchers from SSHSPH and the University Malaya Medical Center in Kuala Lumpur. Over 5,200 breast-cancer patients were studied between 1990 and 2007. Of the sample, 2,449 women were from the National University Hospital, while the rest were from the medical centre in Malaysia. It is the first such study on the impact of ethnicity on survival after breast-cancer diagnosis in Southeast Asia.
