Dr. Thravin & Dr. Sushant after the launch of Afinitor
On October 30th, Novartis, a world leader in offering medicines to protect health, cure disease and improve well-being, launched Afinitor tablets for the treatment of patients who have advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The treatment is mainly suitable for patients, whose disease progresses after targeted therapy.
RCC is one of the most common forms of cancers and it accounts for two per cent of all new cancers - the rate of incidence is increasing steadily around the world. The disease is mainly seen in patients between 50 and 70 years of age and here in Malaysia, it is twice as common in men as it is in women.
In the US, there are 36,000 new cases every year, and 40 percent of those cases have reported death.
Kidney cancer is often diagnosed too late and patients have advanced stages of the cancer by the time they are diagnosed and this is because there is "no pre-screening technique recommendation stage available," says Dr Foo Yoke Ching, who is a representative of the Malaysia Oncological Society.
