KUALA LUMPUR: There are only 50 oncologists in the country and they aren’t any in four states.

Malaysian Oncologist Society president Datuk Dr Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Wahid said the distribution of doctors specialising in cancer treatment was uneven as most tended to work in big cities like Kuala Lumpur and Penang.

“We have some of the best medical equipment and facilities to treat cancer, equivalent to those at European countries but we fall short in terms of work force,” he told reporters after launching the Breast Cancer Aware-ness campaign organised by the National Union of Bank Employees and Karangkraf. He declined to name the four states without oncologists.

Dr Mohamed Ibrahim said the actual number of the specialists needed was one for every 200,000 people, adding that the shortage was due to the extensive time taken to train oncologists.

He said that to overcome the problem, a programme had been established since 2000 to train the experts locally unlike previously when the doctors had to be sent for training in Britain.

Dr Mohamed Ibrahim also urged non-governmental organisations to come up with a subsidy scheme to help cancer patients cope with medical expenses, particularly for new treatment which were more effective.

He gave an example of a new synthetic antibody treatment for breast cancer known as herceptin which could cost patients between RM120,000 and RM150,000.

“There is no tax relief for medication. Therefore, NGOs like NUBE can think of a subsidy scheme to help the patients obtain medication,” he said.