KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — More Malaysian girls and women are getting cancer, but fewer boys and men are getting diagnosed with the chronic disease, according to the latest survey by the Malaysian National Cancer Registry.
The Malaysia National Cancer Registry Report 2012-2016, which was published today, found that cancer incidence rates from 2012 to 2016 increased by 2.3 in females, and reduced slightly by 0.8 in males per 100,000 populations, compared to the 2007-2011 period.
The age-standardised incidence rates (ASR) for 2012 to 2016 were 86.1 for males and 101.6 for females per 100,000 populations.
A total of 115,238 new cancer cases were diagnosed in the same period, with 44.7 per cent of cases involving males and 55.3 per cent, females.
“The annual cancer incidence in Malaysia is increasing over the 10 years (2007-2016) in males and females,” the report read. “The incidence in females was noted to be higher than males.”
Malaysia recorded an 11.3 per cent increase in new cancer cases from 103,507 in 2007-2011 to 115,238 in the 2012-2016 period.
Meanwhile, the probability of being diagnosed with cancer before the age of 75, in the absence of other causes of death, was 9.8 for males and 10.8 for females, for the same period.
This means that one in nine females and one in 10 males in Malaysia, will get cancer in their lifetime. Females have a slightly higher risk of contracting cancer when compared to males.
“The lifetime risk for both sexes did not change compared to the previous report which remained as 1 in 10 among males and 1 in 9 among females,” the MNCRR 2012-2016 report added, referring to the previous MNCRR 2007-2011 report.
Both reports aimed at identifying incident trends and cancer risks in Malaysia for a 10-year period from 2007 to 2016.
The number of cancer cases in the 2012-2016 period also increased exponentially with age, with females getting diagnosed with cancer mostly in the 55 to 59 age group, and males in the 60 to 64 age group.
The incidence of cancer increased for both males and females after the age of 30 years. The incidence rate in males exceeded the incidence rate in females after the age of 60 years, the same as in the previous MNCRR report. Men were more likely to get cancer than females after the age of 60.
Breast, colorectal, and cervical cancer were the top three cancers among Malaysian women from 2012 to 2016, while for men, it’s colorectal, lung, and prostate cancer.
