Lung Cancer Network Malaysia – LCNM shared about 1st Malaysian Lung Cancer Policy Roundtable Forum on LinkedIn:
“Lung Cancer Network Malaysia (LCNM) and ASPIRE for Lung Cancer, an Asia-Pacific policy think-tank recently co-hosted a highly interactive lung cancer policy roundtable discussion with key stakeholders from the public and private healthcare sectors, academia, primary care, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and Ministry of Health, Malaysia. MOH representatives included senior officers from the Pharmacy division, Health Transformation Office and governmental clinical Heads of Service for Oncology (Dr Ros Suzanna Bustamam), Respiratory Medicine (Dato Dr Mat Zuki Mat Jaeb), General Thoracic Surgery (Mr S Narasimman), Nuclear Medicine (Dr Siti Zarina Amir Hassan) and senior radiologists including Dr Aida Abdul Aziz (President, Malaysian Society of Thoracic Radiologists). ASPIRE has conducted similar regional forums in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea in recent years.
The high-level multi stakeholder roundtable forum chaired by LCNM President, Professor Anand Sachithanandan, featured insightful presentations from Dr Mat Zuki, Prof Anand and Dr Lye Mun Tho, followed by robust forum discussions moderated by Emeritus Professor Liam Chong Kin (University Malaya), Dr Hilmi Lockman and Dr Ros Suzanna, respectively. General Family Practice was represented by eminent GPs; Datuk Dr Arasu (MMA president), Dr Ramon Varughese (CEO, Qualitas Health) and Dr Nor Hazlin (President of Malaysian Family Medicine Specialists Association.
A wide range of critical issues were discussed including the rising lung cancer burden in Malaysia, optimal modality and frequency of screening, biomarker testing, compliance with local CPG guidelines, access to cutting edge therapies and various strategies to surmount real-world challenges.
According to Prof Sachithanandan, given Malaysia’s dichotomous health system with considerable geographical discordance, with many facilities and services concentrated in the Klang Valley or private sector, strategic public-private partnership is an imperative. For instance, we learnt only two MOH centres are equipped with PET scanners, an essential staging tool for lung cancer. To ensure the success of the Ministry’s National Lung Health Initiative (LHI) and for screening to be truly impactful, it must be large-scale and targeted.
LCNM pioneered the local use of artificial intelligence enabled chest X-ray (Ai-CXR) screening which is now the bedrock of the LHI but as a nation, we should mobilise and meaningfully involve the wide network of private primary care services nationwide (beyond Klinik Kesihatans) for screening and triage, a move echoed by MMA president Datuk Dr Arasu, representing over 10,000 private GPs. Given limited resources and our high disease burden, Prof Sachithanandan reiterated the rationale to leverage the vast resources and expertise of private hospitals and specialists to ensure timely quality care as time-to-treatment initiation significantly impacts patient outcomes in terms of survival.
LCNM previously spearheaded the development of Malaysia’s first clinical practice guidelines (CPG) for lung cancer, in collaboration with the Malaysian Thoracic Society, Malaysian Oncological Society and Malaysian Association of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, which according to Prof Sachithanandan will serve as an actionable roadmap for the LHI in terms of how to best manage newly diagnosed early-stage lung cancer.
A common theme from both public and private specialists at this roundtable forum was financial constraint which limits patient equity and access to efficacious game-changing cancer treatments like oral targeted therapies and systemic immunotherapy. Prof Sachithanandan highlighted the need for healthcare professionals to lobby for sustainable dedicated funding to accomplish the goals of the Lung Health Initiative.
Additionally, he shared LCNM’s hope and vision that lung cancer be made a ‘poster boy’ as the first notifiable cancer-related disease to ensure mandatory and timely reporting of newly diagnosed cases. Accordingly to him there is a pressing need for a contemporary real-time registry to facilitate better workforce and resource planning as the current national cancer registry data though comprehensive, only reports every five years and even now, the most contemporary publicly available data is from 2017-2021, which is over five years ago.
Prof Sachithanandan shared that LCNM intends to conduct further roundtable discussions with different relevant stakeholders in the coming year to address issues of financial toxicity, developing a national screening programme and a registry to guide workforce planning.”
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