Cancer in Malaysia
Why are more and more people getting cancer? The most important factor is that Malaysians are leading longer lives and cancer incidence increases with age.
A total of 18,219 new cancer cases were diagnosed in 2007 and registered at the National Cancer Registry published in 2011. It comprises of 8,123 (44.6%) males and 10,096 (55.4%) females.
Adapted from the National Cancer Registry 2007
In Malaysia, the Chinese had a higher chance of getting cancer, compared to the Indians and Malays. We don't fully understand why there are differences, but it is likely to be because we have different diets and lifestyles.
The most frequent cancer in Malaysia was:
- breast cancer (18.1%)
- colorectal cancer (12.3%)
- lung cancer (10.2%)
Amongst males, the most common cancer was:
- lung cancer (16.3%)
- colorectal cancer (14.6%)
- nasopharynx 8.4%)
- prostate (6.2%)
- lymphoma (5.5%)
In females, the most frequent cancer was:
- breast cancer (32.1%)
- colorectal (10.0%)
- cancers of the cervix uteri (8.4%)
- ovary (6.5%)
- lung (5.4%)
