0 Integrated cancer center opened

A new integrated cancer treatment and information center has been opened at the Bali branch of the Indonesian Cancer Foundation (YKI) in Denpasar, allowing patients to obtain medical treatment, post-treatment therapies and comprehensive information on the disease. Ayu Pastika, YKI chairperson, said in her speech during the opening of the new facility on Wednesday said that it had been built to provide a variety of cancer prevention programs, medical treatment, counseling and therapy for cancer patients and temporary shelter for patients and families during their treatment. 

Ayu said that the new building, located at Jl. Pulau Aru No. 3, had four rooms with eight beds. “When a patient, especially one coming from outside Denpasar, has to undergo cancer treatment at Sanglah Hospital, he or she can stay here with their family during the medical sessions,” explained the wife of Bali’s governor, Made Mangku Pastika. The Cancer Center is badly needed to help the island’s increasing number of patients obtain the necessary treatment and post-treatment therapies. 

“The number of people suffering from various cancers has been increasing sharply, while affordable medical facilities and shelters are still scarce here,” she said. Ketut Suarjaya, head of the Bali Health Office, confirmed that cancer was the second-most dangerous killer for Balinese people, after cardiovascular disease. “This year, around 1,500 new cases of breast cancer and cervical cancer affecting women overshadowed the island’s health world,” Suarjaya said. YKI data showed that the death rate due to cancer was 150 for every 100,000 patients. 

Bali Health office is currently actively conducting a series of cancer prevention and awareness programs to bring comprehensive information on cancer diseases to the entire population of Bali, including school students and women. “Early detection programs for cervical and breast cancer are now ongoing in several places,” he said. A mass vaccination program against cervical cancer is being implemented in junior and senior high schools in Denpasar and other regencies in Bali involving thousands of female students. 

IGP Surya, a medical professor from Udayana University and chairman of YKI organizing committee, said that YKI had been providing counseling to 140,829 women, or 13 percent of the island’s total population of women of child-bearing age. The ceremony on Wednesday also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between YKI, Bali administration, Sanglah Hospital, Udayana University’s Medicine Faculty and Doctors’ Associations to provide integrated health care services for cancer patients. 

Previously, Tjakra Wibawa Manuaba, professor of oncology, stated that cervical and breast cancer cases among women in Bali had been rising significantly, some caused by unhealthy lifestyles, while others were due to genetics. “We treat at least 200 new patients suffering from breast cancer every year, obviously that number excludes the many unreported cases,” the professor said. “The majority of cancer patients — about 80 percent of them — come to the hospital at the very advanced stages,” said the professor. 

Balinese people had to think carefully about their daily habits and ensure they had a healthy lifestyle, the professor advised. “Many patients have refused to get medical treatment in hospitals and relied mostly on traditional healing systems. By the end of the day, their illnesses are incurable as they reach the final stages of the disease. Doctors cannot do anything by then,” he warned.

source : bali daily