78 Med J Malaysia Vol 59 No 1 March 2004 Introduction The curriculum for undergraduate training in medicine is changing. Instead of the traditional teacher centered curriculum, many medical schools have adopted the problem based learning (PBL) approach to involve students in the learning process 1 . While there appears to be a changing trend in the approach to learning, there is a need to look at the content of the undergraduate medical curriculum in relation to priorities and prevalence of disease. In the clinical years, subjects concerning infective diseases and nutritional diseases are given teaching priority compared to cancer. Yet over the past few decades, the disease pattern has changed. Cancer is considered as the biggest killer disease among non-communicable diseases surpassing road traffic accidents and cardiovascular diseases 2-3 . The magnitude of the cancer problem is especially felt in the developing world 4 . In one study, the total number of cancer patients demanding care globally per year is estimated at 15.5 million 5 . Moreover the World Health Organization (WHO) has projected an annual cancer incidence rate of 20 million per year by the year 2020 6 . Surprisingly, there is little effort to improve undergraduate cancer education to cope with the new disease trend. Due to lack of knowledge about cancer, early detection of cases requiring radiotherapy and oncology interventions are delayed 7 . There is also an almost non-existence of palliative care input in undergraduate medical courses in some Universities 8 . Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Exposure to Oncology and Palliative Care in Undergraduate Medical Students ORIGINAL ARTICLE This article was accepted: 17 June 2003 Corresponding Author: B M Biswal, Department of Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Oncology School of Medical Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan B M Biswal, MD, A Zakaria, PhD*, A A Baba. MRCP**, R Ja'afar. MHPEd*** *Department of Nuclear Medicine, Radiotherapy & Oncology, **Department of Medicine and ***Medical Education School of Medical Science, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian, Kelantan Summary We conducted a questionnaire survey among 261 year-4 and year-5 medical students containing 27 questions related to cancer, radiotherapy, general oncology and palliative care to assess their knowledge, understanding, and exposure to oncology and palliative care in our medical school. Out of 261 students, 139 students returned their questionnaire for analysis. Twenty nine percent (29%) of the students had rarely visited the Radiotherapy and Oncology unit. There were profound deficiencies in the basic knowledge of cancer (46%), principles of radiotherapy treatment (59%), palliative care (64%), and cancer prevention (48%). They reported no specific teaching about early detection of common malignancies and cancer prevention. The main input of instruction about cancer came from surgery (46%) and pathology (28%) teachings. This study revealed that there is deficiency in cancer education in the undergraduate teaching program in our institution. Key Words: Undergraduate, Medical education, Cancer, Radiotherapy and Oncology, Palliative care