We report a rare case of a giant extradural and intraabdominal ganglioneuroblastoma in a young Malay girl who presented to a paediatrician initially at 5 days of life with a palpable abdominal mass. Unfortunately, the parents refused any form of surgical intervention until the child was 3 years old. She subsequently underwent vascular embolisation followed by the removal of this large tumour both via the abdomen and through a laminectomy approach and subsequently refused chemotherapy. The c-myc amplication in this patient was absent and there were no chromosomal aberrations, During the 2 year folow-up the patient remained well, and ambulatory with no tumour recurrence.
Patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) commonly presents with lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), which can be of obstructive symptoms such as hesitancy, incomplete voiding, post void dribbling or of irritative symptoms such as urgency, frequency and nocturia. Various recent studies indicate that nocturia is a very important and bothersome lower urinary tract symptom especially among patients with Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). The aims of the study was to determine the frequency of common urinary symptoms among patients with BPH in HUSM as well as to evaluate the extent of bothersomeness of each and every symptom to these patients. This study too was aimed at evaluating the success of TURP in resolving pre operative LUTS. This was a questionnaire-based survey using a validated ICSBPH model whereby patients with BPH were selected and quizzed personally by an investigator. A subset of patients who had undergone TURP were further questioned regarding their satisfaction with the procedure. When nocturia is defined as waking up at night once or more to pass urine, the prevalence of nocturia was about 90%, but only 1 in 6 patients considered this is a very serious symptom. Even if the definition was changed to waking up twice or more, the prevalence is still quite high at over 80%. Urgency were noted in half of the patients, but only a quarter of them consider it a serious problem. 1 in 5 patients experienced significant leak and almost all consider it serious. About one third of the studied population had to be catheterized due to urinary obstruction and interestingly only about half of them considered it as a very serious event. Overall, a great majority of these patients considered suffering from these urinary symptoms for the rest of their life as very devastating. This study conclude that although the prevalence of nocturia was high among BPH patients, but it was not considered serious by majority of them. In fact, LUTS in our BPH patients did not differ much from BPH patients elsewhere. On the whole, TURP resolved most of the LUTS effectively.
Breast cancer is the most common and leading cause of cancer mortality among Malaysian women. Despite good survival rates, the diagnosis of cancer still invokes the feeling of stress, fear and uncertainty. Because very little is known about the experiences of Malaysian women with breast cancer, a qualitative study using semi- structured interviews to explore the lived experience of newly diagnosed breast cancer. Using a purposive sampling method, 20 Malaysian women newly diagnosed with breast cancer, including Malays (n=10) and Chinese (n=10) were recruited in two main public hospitals in Kelantan. Similarities and divergence in women's experience were identified through thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Three themes emerged from the data: uncertainty experience of the illness, transition process and fatalistic view of breast cancer. In many ways, these findings were parallel with previous studies, suggesting that the experience of breast cancer is to a certain extent similar among women newly diagnosed with breast cancer. This study adds to the sparse literature concerning the experience of illness following breast cancer diagnosis among the Malays and Chinese. More importantly, this study addressed areas that were previously lacking, specifically in depth information on breast cancer experience from a developing country with a multi-ethnic population. The results of this investigation provide preliminary information to healthcare professionals on the impact of illness and cultural influence on survivorship to plan for appropriate education and supportive programme in order to meet the needs of breast cancer women more effectively.