THE shortage of oncologists is serious and their numbers now are too small to tackle new problems relating to cancer, Utusan Malaysia reported.

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Molecular Biology Institute director Prof Dr A. Rahman A. Jamal said: "Our country has only 30 oncologists to treat adult cancer and 15 to treat children."

Currently, only Universiti of Malaya (UM) is offering post-graduate studies in oncology-related fields.

"Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), despite having a medical department, cannot offer subjects in oncology because of the lack of lecturers in this particular field," Prof A. Rahman said.

He stressed that the Government must move accordingly to increase the number of oncologists.