Jakarta, IO – Cancer in Indonesia is a major public health economic concern, and its burden is increasing. With almost 400,000 new cases in 2020, we can predict (in numbers) a significant increase by 2040 in the caseload, due to aging and population growth. Better cancer control and a paradigm shift in cancer management are becoming increasingly urgent for strengthening the health system in Indonesia.
“The current approach to treating cancer is precision medicine, namely, treatment based on existing genomic patterns in cancer cells. In lung cancer cells, for example, there are various kinds of oncogenic driving mutations, which currently have the potential to be given targeted therapy. Therefore, CGP (Comprehensive Genomic Profiling) examination is important to determine the most appropriate therapeutic target for the patient,” said Dr. dr. Arif R. Hanaf, Sp.P(K), Lung Oncology Specialist at Dharmais Cancer Hospital PKN (National Cancer Center), Wednesday (7/12/2022).
So far, diagnostic examinations related to cancer treatment in Indonesia are still being carried out, in stages. Examination of cancer patients for the next stage will only be carried out if initial test results are negative. It took a long time for doctors to assess the tumor genome profile of some patients’ gene mutations, to determine the most appropriate therapeutic option.