LUNDU (Sarawak), Jan 29 — Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women and also the leading cause of cancer deaths among the gender.
Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri said breast cancer recorded the highest percentage at 34.1 per cent compared to other cancers among women in Malaysia.
“This means, the incidence rate of breast cancer in Malaysia is 34.1 cases per 100,000 female population.
“As for cervical cancer, women aged 30 and above are the highest risk group. These two types of cancer are reproductive cancers that often haunt women in our country,” she said when launching the Women’s Reproductive Cancer Awareness Campaign (WCaRe) here today.
She said the ministry through the National Population and Family Development Board (LPPKN) launched the WCaRe campaign to increase awareness among women of the importance of early screening to detect breast and cervical cancer.
She said the effort is also to achieve the global goal of zero incidence of cervical cancer by 2070.
“KPWKM through LPPKN also provides targeted subsidies for these two tests for those who qualify, especially the B40 group.
“A total of 49 Nur Sejahtera Clinics (KNS) of LPPKN throughout the country are also implementing this WCaRe Campaign and also providing Mammogram Test and HPV DNA Test services,” she said.
Earlier, Nancy visited the home of one of the respondents for the Family Well-being Index Study at Kampung Sileng Melayu.
It is a joint study between the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) to measure the level of family well-being in Malaysia.
In Sarawak, a total of 480 respondents from 8,000 families are involved in the study which has eight main domains such as family relationships, economy, health, safety, community involvement, the role of religion and spiritual practices, housing and environment as well as family and communication technology.
