PETALING JAYA: It is estimated that more than half of all cervical cancer patients in Malaysia die from the disease, but public health officials are working hard to bring these numbers down to almost nil within the next 10 to 20 years.
The latest figures provided by the Global Cancer Observatory show that in 2020, 1,740 women in Malaysia contracted the disease, of whom 991 or 57% did not survive.
The reason for the high death rate, said National Cancer Society Malaysia (NCSM) managing director Dr Murallitharan Munisamy, is that 40% of cervical cancer cases are detected late, thus reducing the chances of survival.
“More than 40% of our cases are detected at stage 3 or 4. Because of that, in Malaysia, the mean survival rate is only three in 10 women who survive past five years after a cervical cancer diagnosis.
“The issue is late diagnosis. This is where we need to do a lot more to make sure that people actually get screened,” he said.
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January is cervical cancer awareness month and in 2018, the World Health Organisation (WHO) made a global call for action to eliminate cervical cancer by 2030.
Malaysia could reduce the number of cases in the next one to two decades with ramped up vaccination, screening and treatment.“Give it about 10-20 years and we will have almost negligible cases of cervical cancer that actually need to be treated,” said Dr Murallitharan.
Malaysia had been doing well with human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccinations, which can prevent cervical cancers, among schoolgirls since 2010 until the Covid-19 pandemic shut down schools.
“Unfortunately, vaccinations have slowed down since 2020 and we have not quite got back to our previous rate of vaccinations,” Dr Murallitharan said.
The vaccine reduces the chances of contracting HPV, a common virus that spreads through skin contact, usually harmless but can cause cervical cancer.
The Health Ministry is currently running campaigns to cover those who have been left out while NCSM is running its own programme to distribute 300,000 doses of HPV vaccine donated by a pharmaceutical company.
Dr Murallitharan said that the prevalence of the oncogenic types of HPV has significantly gone down after Malaysia began the vaccination drive in 2010.
To increase the screening rate in the population, health officials are moving towards HPV DNA vaccines which are more cost-effective and convenient.
“With the new screening guidelines, pap smears are recommended at an interval of once every three years while DNA testing is recommended once in five years,” he added.
Although Malaysia’s on-going efforts against cervical cancer were temporarily derailed by Covid-19 lockdowns, Dr Murallitharan said there is a strong commitment to get them back on track and eliminate it by 2030.
According to the WHO, a country must reach and maintain an incidence rate of below four cases per 100,000 women in order to eliminate the disease.
To meet the WHO’s global target, by 2030, each country must fully vaccinate 90% of girls with the HPV vaccine by the age of 15, screen 70% of women using a high-performance test by the age of 35, and again by the age of 45.
Countries must also treat 90% of women with pre-cancer and women with invasive cancer.
