Advancement in therapeutics a ray of hope for liver cancer patients

KUCHING (Jan 14): The advancement in therapeutics is regarded as a ray of hope for liver cancer patients as they help reduce the risk of cancer progression, while improving quality of life, says Health Department deputy director-general (research and technical support) Dr Nor Fariza Ngah.

She said back in the old days, liver cancer patients would live in the thought of despair and hopelessness.

“However, with the advancement in the realm of therapeutics coupled with multi-disciplinary integrated approaches in the management of liver cancer, we have emerged with a beacon of hope in providing a holistic care for our patients, with the aim of improving clinical outcome and more crucially, quality of life of our patients,” she said in her opening remarks for the Borneo Liver Cancer Update 2024 at the Waterfront Hotel here yesterday.

Adding on, Dr Nor Fariza commended Sarawak General Hospital (SGH)’s Gastroenterology and Hepatology Unit, and the Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) Surgery Unit together with the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) Sarawak branch for the successful organisation of the programme, which she described as a platform that would enable cancer experts improve their knowledge in providing the best curated care for the patients.

“It’s an honour to be a part of this ground-breaking event, where we’re about to be enlightened with state-of-the-art talks from experts in the field of liver cancer including the changing epidemiology, treatment, and management of liver cancer.

“We hope that this will help us improve our knowledge and hence for the best for our patients,” she said.

Also present yesterday were SGH director Dr Ngian Hie Ung and MMA president-elect Dato Dr Kalwinder Singh Khaira.