Skeletal-Related Events among Breast and Prostate Cancer Patients: Towards New Treatment Initiation in Malaysia’s Hospital Setting

The human skeleton is the most common organ to be affected by metastatic cancer and bone metastases area major cause of cancer morbidity. The five most frequent cancers in Malaysia among males includes prostatewhereas breast cancer is among those in females, both being associated with skeletal lesions. Bone metastasesweaken bone structure, causing a range of symptoms and complications thus developing skeletal-related events(SRE). Patients with SRE may require palliative radiotherapy or surgery to bone for pain, having hypercalcaemia,pathologic fractures, and spinal cord compression. These complications contribute to a decline in patient healthrelatedquality of life. The multidimensional assessment of health-related quality of life for those patients isimportant other than considering a beneficial treatment impact on patient survival, since the side effects oftreatment and disease symptoms can significantly impact health-related quality of life. Cancer treatment couldcontribute to significant financial implications for the healthcare system. Therefore, it is essential to assess thehealth-related quality of life and treatment cost, among prostate and breast cancer patients in countries likeMalaysia to rationalized cost-effective way for budget allocation or utilization of health care resources, hencehelping in providing more personalized treatment for cancer patients.