Cancer is top Killer but many shy from being an Oncologist

Star 25052010
 Direct Quote from today's STAR newspaper:

PETALING JAYA: Many doctors shy away from taking up oncology as a specialist discipline.


But the sight of cancer patients huddled in the crowded oncology department of Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) inspired a young medical officer to specialise in the field.

“Patients had to wait long hours to see the specialist be­­cause there were so few oncologists,” recalled Dr Chong Kwang Jeat, who decided to specialise in oncology after his two-year stint in the department.

Dr Chong has written a book My Journey With Patients and now has a private practice in Malacca.

Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) senior lecturer and oncologist Dr Daniel Wong Wai Yan, 38, said the common view of oncology - that it is a depressing field - has turned away many medical students from specialising in the discipline.

“Some doctors do not like the uncertainty of not knowing whether their patients will be cured, but unfortunately this happens in oncology, especially in advanced cases.”

Dr Wong, who worked as an oncologist in Britain for eight years before returning to Malay­sia in 2008, pointed out that oncology had evolved to be an “exciting field” over the last decade.

Dr Wong said new graduates only spent half their time doing general medicine. “Only eight weeks are spent in the oncology department, and many do not train in radiotherapy because only 27 cancer centres in both private and government hospitals have the facility.”

Currently, there are only 60 oncologists in both private and public sectors and the number needs to be doubled due to the high number of cancer patients in the country.

Seventy per cent of the 50,000 newly-detected cancer patients in Malaysia each year need care from oncologists.

Limited opportunities for postgraduate training in oncology has compounded the shortage.

“In our country, we only have the Masters in Clinical Oncology programme at Universiti Malaya,” he said.

The four-year programme, which started in 2002, is modelled after the British Fellowship of the Royal College of Ra­­diologists.

“So far, 34 candidates have enrolled in the programme, and seven have graduated and are working as oncologists,” said Dr Wong, adding that 21 were still undergoing the course.