Genetic screening way to prevent cancer
Published on: Tuesday, August 04, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: Cancer can now be prevented thanks to the development of genetic screening. "If you go for the right genetic testing then cancer can be preventive," said Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad's Manager (Screening and Molecular Diagnostics), Chong Kah Wai. According to him, cancer does not develop overnight, instead, it is a progressive disease and takes years to develop."But if you monitor it every time, then you will have the chance to detect it at an early stage and proceed for treatment. That's the power of genetic screening in preventing cancer. People who have a family history of cancer should go for it," he explained. ADVERTISEMENT He went on explaining that cancer is a multifactorial disease and a genetic profile might play only a 30 per cent role in contributing to the disease whereas the rest have to do with the environment and the person's lifestyle," he said.A person is unable to change their genetic make-up because he or she is born with it, however, both the environment and lifestyle can be modified apart from regular medical check-ups for example, mammogram, he said. Chong said those who managed to diagnose breast cancer before it reaches stage two have a 100 per cent survival rate as well as ovarian cancer before it reaches to Stage One©.Therefore, he said it is important for people to undergo the Breast Cancer Genes 1 or 2 (BRCA 1 or BRCA 2) screening in the early stages of their lives to get early detection for cancer as they cannot totally depend on their family history. ADVERTISEMENT "We cannot use family history as a single indicator. We cannot do this because there are other indicators to determine whether or not you should go for BRCA. Half the cancer patients have no family history of cancer at all."And besides, it is difficult to trace whether or not your aunt or cousin have cancer because there are cases of people mistracing and so you're not going to be sure of your family history," he explained.
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He explained if a person carried the BRCA1 mutation, the lifetime risk of getting cancer could go up as high as 80 per cent. "Our advice is after the test, you can seek advice from your clinical doctor. They will ask you to do a mammogram test to find out the cancer's stage and if you're lucky and it hasn't started yet, you can monitor it every year," he said. Clinipath Malaysia Sdn Bhd Consultant Pathologist Dr. P.M. Thanikachalam explained most genetic mutations which involved BRCA1 are interrelated to both ovarian and breast cancers. "About 60 to 70 per cent of triple negative breast cancer in Malaysia in a small statistical study which I did are BRCA1 related," he said, explaining that triple negative breast cancer does not show any positive markers for what is term as oestrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). According to him, these are the three markers usually done for all breast cancers to know what should be the type of treatment for the patient apart from the routine chemotherapy and radiotherapy.Thanikachalam said when these three markers are all negative it is known as triple negative breast cancer and most triple negative breast cancers are found in younger women and they are all related to the BRCA1 gene mutation."That is why it's important for you to go undergo screening when you or someone closely related to you get a triple negative breast cancer. "There are three cancers that are interrelated in Malaysia namely breast cancer, ovarian cancer and colon cancer and they're all quite highly prevalent … people sometimes think if you have a distant cousin or close cousin who has got breast cancer they should worry about getting breast cancer as well, they don't think that they can also get ovarian cancer or colon cancer," he said, adding that people should always look out for these three types of cancers in their family history. Ovarian cancer is usually missed in early diagnosis and if you had someone in your family who died of colon or breast cancer then you must take action because there is a possibility for you to develop ovarian tumour, he explained."For breast lumps, 90 to 95 per cent of them are not cancerous and they are benign in nature. Usually they're just fibroid and oedema and simple surgeries are enough. Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"Only 5 to 10 per cent of breast lump is cancerous but having said this, I don't mean that you should neglect any breast lumps."Surgeons would opt to do the Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) to detect for any signs of cancer. If it's not cancerous, then you can just excise it but if it's cancerous, you can take further measures like how to go about the treatment depending on your age and the cancer's stage," he said.