ALMOST two in three adults here believe that cancer is always fatal, and half think that it will always recur, a study has found.
And almost a third felt that screening was meant for people who were already experiencing symptoms or were unwell.
The survey of 480 HDB dwellers aged above 40 who never had cancer found that many did not know the facts about cancer, and this could have an adverse impact on them.
The study's main researcher, Dr Helena Verkooijen, said: 'It's quite shocking that there are quite a lot of misconceptions.'
Having the wrong ideas could stop people from taking preventive action that could save their lives, such as going for screening or changing bad habits, said Dr Verkooijen, an adjunct associate professor of the National University of Singapore's department of community, occupational and family medicine.
The study found, for example, that those with very poor knowledge about cancer were three times less likely to have gone for cancer screening than those who were highly knowledgeable.
The top third with the highest scores were defined as highly knowledgeable, and the bottom third were defined as having poor knowledge.
Dr Verkooijen told The Straits Times: 'If people think, it's fated anyway, I'm going to die, why should I bother? Then they won't change their lifestyles or go for screening.
'And if they don't know what increases cancer risk, they are not likely to do anything about it.'
In the study, less than 45 per cent of respondents knew that obesity, an inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables, and a lack of exercise were risk factors for cancer.
The study also found that the poorly informed tended to be older, aged above 70, and with little or no education.
'So, if you want to improve screening rates, you have to improve people's knowledge of cancer, especially targeting older people and the poorly educated,' she said.
She and five other researchers conducted face-to-face interviews in January this year.
Participants were asked 43 questions on their general knowledge of cancer, risk factors, warning symptoms such as a lump in the breast and if they were of the right age and gender for the cancer, and if they had been screened for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer.
Slightly less than half of the respondents had been screened for at least one of the cancers.
Dr Koo Wen Hsin, a medical oncologist, agreed that ignorance is widespread, as many of his patients have advanced cancer by the time they seek help.
But the chairman of the Singapore Cancer Society, which organises public education and screening events, felt it was questionable how much education efforts targeted at older patients would increase survival rates, since they were already close to the end of their lives.
He said: 'Screening a younger population is probably less fruitful, but when detected early, the patients live a lot longer.'
This story was first published in The Straits Times on Dec 23, 2008.
