SCIENCE CAFE 16 OCTOBER 2017: THE MALAYSIAN BREAST CANCER COHORT A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
The October Science Cafe was held on 16th October 2017 at the Lecture Hall of Medical Biotechnology Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine with the theme ‘The Malaysian Breast Cancer Cohort-a multidisciplinary approach’. The main objective of this month’s event was to introduce the faculty to the cohort study and to promote collaboration among
clinical and non-clinical resea in relation to the cohort study and available data.
The discussion began with an overview of the general incidence and mortality of breast cancer patients in Malaysia and introduction to the study design of the project by the Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. Nur Aishah Taib. The project was strongly justified by earlier publications that had shown disparate survival between the ethnic groups in UMMC and SEA despite adjustment for stage of disease and treatments. Prof Aishah covered the objectives of the cohort study which was to study the lifestyle factors and psychosocial determinants that is associated with prognosis. The MyBCC core group include 6 substudies headed by collaborators in UM: AP Hazreen Abdul Majid, Prof Ng Chong Guan, AP Tin Tin SU, Prof Maznah Dahlui, Prof Ahmad Nahar, A Prof Nirmala Bhoo pathy and in collaboration with Dr Marie Cantwell from Queens University Belfast. The data is further supplemented by robust clinical database and biobank by the breast unit, department of surgery.
The presentation was followed by a detailed description of the cohort study as well as the cohort profile by Dr. Tania Islam the MyBCC manager. Up to this date, the cohort had recruited 745 patients and a target of 1000 is envisioned. Dr. Tania also shared the interesting features of the socio-demographic characteristics of the UMMC cohort.
Next, Prof. Ng Chong Guan shared his interesting results regarding the psycho-oncological aspects of the study. Prof. Ng highlighted the fact that psycho-oncological studies are rarely carried out but the results presented were very compelling in relation to anxiety and depression among breast cancer patients. On the whole, it was very encouraging to see that the level of anxiety and depression seen in the preliminary 1-year study were significantly reduced. The main reason for distress was anxiety and not depression. This, as explained by Prof. Ng, was related to the strong social support provided by family and friends of the participants. However, Prof. Ng also stressed that he is very much interested to study the 3-year follow-up to see if social support have waned or burnt out.
The talk was closed by Asocciate Professor Dr. Hazreen bin Abdul Majid with a presentation on nutritional status of breast cancer survivors a year after diagnosis’. Dr. Hazreen shared some interesting preliminary results of the nutrition study including the overwhelming high proportion of overweight and obese survivors and the low amount of fibre and calcium intake among the study group. This was very disconcerting especially in relation to the problem of osteoporosis and low vit D levels among Malaysians. There was also a noticeable increase in the level of sodium intake in the participants of the study. Dr. Hazreen closed with his hope for intervention that would account for not only the affordability of healthy food options, but also ethnically and culturally appropriate interventions. Incidentally the breast cancer survivorship cookbook in collaboration with the Candy Girls published by UMPress is already available in the market.
The group is also currently seeking for potential collaborators from various fields, as an abundance of data and biospecimens that is available for future collaboration. The talk was very much appreciated and a follow up talk on the socioeconomic aspects of the cohort will be planned for next year.
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