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KUALA LUMPUR: Having survived prostate cancer, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak (photo) publicly shares his experience in the hope that it will raise awareness of the issue.
It is also done in conjunction with the national #onlymencan campaign against the disease.
Nazir is a trustee of the Malaya University Urological Cancer Trust Fund, headed by Datuk Professor Dr. Adeeba Kamarulzaman, who spearheads the campaign that kicks off Men’s Health Awareness Month to be held each November from 2020 to 2024.
“I thought a lot about speaking publicly about my experiences. I finally decided that I had to. I think doing this will encourage others to do the same and hopefully it will also make the subject less taboo, ”he said.
It was a casual checkup that led to his being diagnosed with cancer in October 2018, when he wanted to buy an insurance product recommended by his banker.
“My blood work showed that my prostate specific antigen (PSA) was high, so the doctor was suspicious and sent me for an magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that showed images of various tumors,” he said.
The final confirmatory test was a minor but invasive biopsy that confirmed the presence of cancer and showed that it had not spread beyond the prostate.
However, the biopsy also revealed that the prostate cancer classification Gleason score indicated that the cancer was aggressive and likely to spread rapidly.
“Based on my PSA and my MRI, being told I probably had cancer was a big shock. Especially when I was feeling so healthy. But I read it quickly and knew that my chances of survival were high, as long as it had not spread, ”he said, adding that he had no symptoms.
Although common symptoms of prostate cancer are largely related to urination, such as difficulty and frequency of urination, patients can be asymptomatic, as in Nazir’s case.
He underwent a robotic prostatectomy in February last year to remove his prostate, and full recovery took between four and five months.
As a prostate cancer survivor, Nazir believes that her role, in addition to focusing on fundraising leveraging her network as a former corporate leader, is to lead the #onlymencan campaign by telling her story to help others.
“We have to tackle the problem of consciousness head-on. People are shy about talking about it. There is also a cultural aversion, especially among Malaysians, to speaking openly about anything related to sexual functions; even people with symptoms try to avoid seeing the doctor, “he said.
This may be the reason why Malaysia has more than 60% detection of advanced-stage prostate cancer, compared to the United States with approximately 20% and Singapore (25%). This means that many more Malaysian men die or suffer terribly from prostate cancer than necessary.
“Many men will develop prostate cancer. In the United States, one in nine men contracts it in his lifetime. But it is the most curable cancer, if caught early.
“In many cases, you don’t even need invasive surgery; if it is not aggressive, there are other ways to contain it. But get it caught early.
“If you are over 50, get annual PSA tests. If you’re younger, get checked for symptoms, ”he said.
The main objective of the campaign is to reduce the incidence of late-stage discovery in Malaysia from more than 60% to less than 30% in five years.
For this inaugural year, it will focus on two key elements, which are public awareness and updating the knowledge of general practitioners (GPs).
The two are closely related, as there are few urologists in Malaysia, with one urologist for every 250,000 people, compared to one for every 50,000 people in Singapore.
Therefore, he said that the role of GPs in counseling patients was very important.
“This is only the first year of a five-year program. We will be very noisy for a month; intensity will maximize our chances of getting our message across. The rest of the year, we will do more discreet programs like GP training, ”he said.
The same would be done over the course of five years, after which its achievements and effectiveness would be reviewed, he added.
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