Colorectal cancer is emerging as one of the commonest cancers in Malaysia. Data on colorectal cancer from the National Cancer Registry is very limited. Comprehensive information on all aspects of colorectal cancer, including demographic details, pathology and treatment outcome are needed as the management of colorectal cancer has evolved rapidly over the years involving several disciplines including gastroenterology, surgery, radiology, pathology and oncology. This registry will be an important source of information that can help the development of guidelines to improve colorectal cancer care relevant to this country. The database will initially recruit all colorectal cancer cases from eight hospitals. The data will be stored on a customized web-based case report form. The database has begun collecting data from 1 October 2007 and will report on its first year findings at the end of 2008.
Cancer burden in Malaysia is increasing. Although there have been improvements in cancer treatment, these new therapies may potentially cause an exponential increase in the cost of cancer treatment. Therefore, justification for the use of these treatments is mandated. Availability of local data will enable us to evaluate and compare the outcome of our patients. This will help to support our clinical decision making and local policy, improve access to treatment and improve the provision and delivery of oncology services in Malaysia. The National Cancer Patient Registry was proposed as a database for cancer patients who seek treatment in Malaysia. It will be a valuable tool to provide timely and robust data on the actual setting in oncology practice, safety and cost effectiveness of treatment and most importantly the outcome of these patients.
BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the commonest cancer amongst Malaysian women but local survival data are scarce. The present study was therefore conducted to assess overall survival and prognostic factors in Malaysian breast cancer patients.
METHODS: The research sample was a prospective cohort of 413 patients diagnosed with breast cancer in the University of Malaya Medical Centre between 1993 to 1997. Survival data were obtained from the National Registry of Birth and Deaths in December 2000. The clinico-pathological variables studied were age, ethnic group, stage, tumour size, lymph node status, oestrogen receptor status and grade. The data were analysed utilizing Splus statistical software. The important prognostic factors were identified by fitting the Cox's proportional hazard model to the data set. Survival probabilities were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and differences were compared by the log-rank test.
RESULTS: The overall 5-year survival was 59.1%. The Cox's proportional hazard model identified stage, lymph node status, size and grade as factors that correlated with prognosis. Age was not a significant prognostic factor. The Cox regression model by stepwise selection showed stage, nodal status and grade of tumour to be independent prognostic factors, whereas ethnicity, age and ER status were not.
INTERPRETATION: The overall survival in our centre was low. Recognizing factors that affect prognosis of breast cancer patients in Malaysia may improve delivery of health care to at-risk groups by strategizing interventions as survival depends on early detection and effective treatment.
A twin registry is a registry of twin pairs (monozygotic = MZ and Dizygotic = DZ) who are willing to consider participating in health-related research. Twins are able to help researchers study the impact of genetic and environmental factors on health and the treatment and prevention of disease in a special way. Throughout the world, twin registries have been established by the governments via the National Health and Medical Research in order to put researchers in touch with twins who might be willing to take part in particular projects. In Australia, for example, more than 30,000 pairs of twins have joined the registry, making it the largest volunteer registry of its kind in the world. However, in some countries such as Denmark, the first twin registry was born in a medical faculty and it was then expanded to the National Twin Registry of Denmark. (Copied from article).
Md Zain F, Hong JYH, Wu LL, Harun F, Rasat R, Jalaludin MY, et al.
Citation: Annual Report of the Diabetes in Children & Adolescent Registry (DiCARE) 2006-2007. Kuala Lumpur: Clinical Research Centre; 2008
The objective of Diabetes in Children and Adolescents Registry (DiCARE) under the Ministry of Health (MOH) is to collect information about diabetes mellitus in children and adolescents in Malaysia. This is important in estimating the incidence of diabetes mellitus among children and adolescents and at the same time evaluating the risk factors and the management. The registry aims to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of health care among the young diabetics and the health economics of diabetes. The issues related to diabetes care can be looked into and solved when the patients are still young, with the hope that they will become knowledgeable adults who can reasonably handle their diabetes well and thus decrease the long term complications. This information is deemed important in assisting the MOH, Non-Governmental Organizations, healthcare providers and industries in the planning and evaluation of diabetes mellitus prevention and control.
Citation: The first annual report of the National Eye Database 2007. Goh PP, Hussein E, Mustari Z, Ismail M, editors. Kuala Lumpur: Clinical Research Centre; 2008
Melioidosis has a high annual incidence and mortality rate in Pahang, Malaysia. We initiated the first melioidosis registry in the country on 1st July 2005 to improve the management of melioidosis in the state. Continuous medical education on melioidosis was carried out in all hospitals in the state to highlight the magnitude of the disease and to educate the doctors on the treatment of the disease. All culture confirmed cases were registered and analysed. During the one-year study period from 1st July 2005 till 30th June 2006, a total of 63 patients had positive culture for Burkholderia pseudomallei. The calculated annual incidence of melioidosis in Pahang state was 4.3 per 100,000 population per year (Adult, 6.0 per 100, 000 population per year and paediatric, 1.6 per 100,000 population per year). There were 55 Malays (87.3%), three Chinese (4.8%), four aborigines (6.3%) and one Indonesian. Nine (14.3%) were less than 18 years old. The median age was 49 years (range: 1-68 years). Only one patient (1.6%) had a previous history of confirmed melioidosis. With this programme, we had observed a decline in adult mortality from 54% to 44%, although this was not statistically significant. However, culture-confirmed relapses had dropped from 19% to nil. Several measures need to be taken to decrease mortality from melioidosis in endemic countries.
The Malaysian National Cancer Registry (NCR) report for the period 2003-2005 shows an incidence of stomach cancer of 2.2 for Malay, 11.3 for Chinese and 11.9 for Indian males per 100,000 population. Malay (1.3), Chinese (7.2) and Indian (7.2) women have rates lower than men. Malays in Peninsular Malaysia have five times less stomach cancer than Chinese and Indians. This racial difference is more marked than that noted in the Singapore cancer registry. Regional data from Kelantan has an even lower rate for Malays there (1.5 for males and 0.9 for females per 100,000 population). The incidence of Helicobacter pylori infection, a known risk factor for stomach cancer, is low among Malays.
INTRODUCTION: The increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome worldwide is closely related to the rising obesity epidemic. The objectives of the study were to determine the prevalence and identify the associated and prognostic factors that influence the risk of metabolic syndrome among obese patients attending the Obesity Clinic at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia.
METHODS: A study was conducted involving 102 obese persons who attended the Obesity Clinic from January 1 to December 31, 2005. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation criteria.
RESULTS: The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome among obese patients was 40.2 percent. The prevalence was higher in females (43.7 percent) than in males (32.3 percent). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was noted to increase with increasing body mass index class, from class 1 to class 2. However, the prevalence was lower in obesity class 3. The prevalence of metabolic comorbidities of raised blood pressure, reduced high density lipoprotein, high triglyceride and raised fasting blood glucose was 42, 40, 36 and 17 percent, respectively. A quarter of obese patients in this study had no other comorbidity. Based on logistic regression multivariable analysis, age was the only significant associated factor that influenced the risk of having metabolic syndrome.
CONCLUSION: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was high and the highest comorbidity was high blood pressure. Age was the only significant risk factor of having this syndrome.
Little or no information is available on the prevalence of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) among different ethnic groups in Brunei, or how useful plasma IgA antibodies are against viral capsid antigen (VCA) and early antigen (EA) in the diagnosis of NPC, even though they are routinely measured in patients suspected to have NPC.
The impact of dialysis modality on the rates and types of infectious complications has not been well studied. The aim of the present investigation was to evaluate the rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections in peritoneal dialysis (PD) and haemodialysis (HD) patients in the Asia-Pacific region.
Citation: Wan Bebakar WM, Ismail M, Sharif J. Preliminary report of an audit of diabetes control and management (DRM-ADCM) July to December 2008. Kuala Lumpur: Diabetes Registry Malaysia; 2009
Retinoblastoma is a childhood ocular cancer. The aim of this paper is to describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of patients with retinoblastoma in a major paediatric ophthalmology center in the country. Retrospective information was collected through the retinoblastoma registry. Late presentation with advanced staging is a major problem.
Registration of research proposal to a publicly accessible website with searchable function allows information sharing and ensures research transparency. The National Institutes of Health Malaysia, realising the importance of research registration, established the National Medical Research Register (NMRR) in 2007. The NMRR functions more than just a local register: it also links to ethics approval and MOH medical research grant application. It thus facilitates researchers in their application to the Ministry of Health Research and Ethics Committee (MREC) and for Ministry of Health research grant. In addition, MREC committee members can review research protocol on NMRR website, thus saving much time and resources. From May 2007 till December 2009, more than 3000 people have registered as NMRR public users and more than 1000 research proposals have been uploaded in NMRR. The number of registration of research proposals, clinical trials and industrial sponsored trials steadily increased from year 2007 to year 2009. The web-based NMRR is the first research register in the world that links research proposal registration to ethical review and research grant application. Its future plan is to be linked with publication. Therefore, it is indeed an innovation that Malaysians should be proud of.
To create a national registry of contact-lens related corneal ulcers (CLRCU) patients in Malaysia with the aim of detecting outbreaks, identifying pattern of causative organisms, determining patient demography, risk factors, wearing patterns and monitoring outcome of treatment. The CLRCU registry is an ongoing patient registry established in 2007 as a surveillance tool used by Malaysian Ministry of Health ophthalmology departments. Notification of patients clinically suspected of CLRCU was performed online through the National Eye Database (NED). Data collected included patient demography, contact lens type, causative organism and treatment outcome. During 2007-2008, a total of 202 patients were notified to the CLRCU registry with a mean age of 26.7 years (71.8% female). All registered patients wore soft contact lens and monthly disposable lenses were the most popular (83.5%). The majority of patients had bacterial CLRCU and the most common causative organism was Pseudomonas (79.7% of bacterial cases). No epidemics were identified during the period of data examination. Use of contact lenses, which is increasing during modern times, may lead to CLRCU as a severe complication. The CLRCU registry is an effective tool which uses a web-based notification system that allows quick and up to date reports of CLRCU cases. This provides the ability to monitor outbreaks of disease and identify important causative and associated factors of the disease which may be used to reduce future incidence.
Splenectomised thalassaemia patients are at risk of developing sepsis. As the infection may be life-threatening, treatment should be sought and given promptly. A retrospective study was performed amongst our thalassaemia major patients who were splenectomised. The vaccination status of each patient and the types of infections seen were reviewed to obtain a local perspective. In our cohort of 49 splenectomised patients, 25 patients required hospitalization for the treatment of infection. There were a total of 40 febrile episodes within this hospitalised group of which 27.5% were microbiologically documented infection with bacteraemia. The predominant causative organisms were gram negative rods and three patients succumbed to overwhelming septicaemic shock as a result of delayed presentation. Sixty percent of the febrile episodes were clinically documented infection and comprised mainly upper respiratory tract infections. Based on the spectrum of infections seen, there is a need to improve the patients' awareness level so that early treatment is sought. There is also a need to re-address the approach towards vaccination in this immunocompromised group of patients by administering a booster pneumococcal and influenza vaccination in an attempt to reduce morbidity.
Very few registries worldwide focus on clinical outcomes of stem cell therapy (SCT) as the large number of applications and rapid development of the field complicates registry design considerably. The National Stem Cell Therapy Patient Registry of Malaysia aims to accommodate this by using a main protocol which covers the overall design and administration of the registry, and condition-specific sub-protocols which deal with outcome measures. The registry will start with a few sub-protocols covering existing modes of SCT in Malaysia, with new sub-protocols released periodically as the need arises.
Between 1990 and 2005, dialysis treatment rates in Malaysia increased more than eightfold. Dialysis treatment reached a level comparable to rates in developed countries. This remarkable transformation was brought about in large part by the Malaysian government's large-scale purchase of dialysis services from the highly competitive private sector. This paper traces a series of public- and private-sector reforms that dramatically increased access to dialysis for patients with kidney failure from 13 per million people in the population in 1990 to 119 per million in 2005. Not all developing countries have had uniformly positive experiences with private-sector participation in health care. However, our data suggest that strong participation by the private sector in Malaysia has helped make for a stronger health care system as well as healthier patients. Yet the policy decisions that enabled the private sector to participate fully in providing dialysis have not been repeated with other medical services.