6 Oct 2023, KUCHING. Today marked an important milestone for TIMBERLAND MEDICAL CENTRE (TMC) history as we welcome YB Dato Sri Hajah Fatimah Abdullah, Sarawak Minister for Women, Early Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development in officiating the launch of our state-of-the-art mammography systems. The systems include 3D Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) system with Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) and Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM) function capable of performing mammography and interventional mammography procedures for advancing breast cancer screening and precise diagnosis of breast abnormalities.
Breasts cancer recorded the highest percentage at 34.1 percent compared with other cancer types among women in Malaysia. Breast cancer screening awareness is indeed not satisfactory among the community in Sarawak. It was reported that one in 29 women in Malaysia will develop breast cancer. So far in 2023, about 20% of TMC screening mammogram cases detected suspicious breast mass lesion and resulted in breast biopsy and breast surgery performed by our Resident Gynaecologists and Visiting Breasts and Endocrine Surgeons with specialized expertise in treating breast cancer cases. Beyond serving Sarawak population needs, TMC’s substantial investments in these next generation systems will also benefit patients throughout Borneo, as tens of thousands of medical tourists return post-pandemic to visit us for the quality, affordable and trusted care that TMC is known to provide over the past 30 years.
The new fully digital robust systems come with a superior high resolution flat panel detector that provides both 2D and 3D superior resolution on Mammography images, combined with value added features like tiltable, rotatable and height adjustable functions. Such systems benefit patients and their care providers by offering more comfortable breast cancer screening, non-invasive interventional breast biopsy procedures with lowest possible radiation dose and speed up the patient recovery process. The 3D Mammography with digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) enable visualization of breast images in multiple cross sectional layers, with some similarity to a CT Scan images in slices.
Furthermore, the new Contrast Enhanced Spectral Mammography (CESM) function available now at TMC can classify both visible and hidden breast lesions as malignant or benign, thereby assisting breast surgeon in deciding breast conserving surgery versus total mastectomy (whole breast removal).
As a conclusion, the new systems marked another substantial investment by TMC to transform patients’ standard of care that our residents and visiting consultants are capable of providing. The board, doctors and staff at Timberland Medical Centre are grateful for the privilege to have YB Dato Sri Hajah Fatimah Abdullah to grace the launch of these systems today in support of TMC’s Centre of Excellence in breast care, for the benefit of all women in Sarawak and throughout Borneo.