Patient Journey

Cancer screening is essential in detecting cancer at its early stage, before they cause symptoms. Early detection is important because when abnormal tissue or cancer is found early, it may be easier to treat. By the time symptoms appear, cancer may have begun to spread and be harder to treat.

People without symptoms and at average risk and those belong to increased risk group should undergo screening for cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer and lung cancer. Please consult our doctor for medical advice. 

1. Clinical Breast Examination
2. 3D Mammogram
3. Stool for occult blood (FOB) test
4. Colonoscopy
5. Thin Prep Pap Test
6. HPV DNA Testing
7. Low dose CT Scan

If you have a symptom or a screening test result that suggests cancer, our doctor then may order imaging tests (scans) and laboratory tests to find out it is due to cancer or some other cause. You may also need a tumour biopsy, which is often the only way to tell for sure if you have cancer.

Imaging Tests

For more information about our advanced diagnostic equipment, please click here

Diagnostic Technology and Facilities

1. Computed Tomography (CT) Scan
2. Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scan
3. Ultrasound Scan
4. Mammography
5. General X-ray
6. Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (PET/CT) Scan
7. Single Photon Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography (SPECT/CT) Scan

Tumour Biopsy

In most cases, doctors need to do a biopsy to diagnose cancer. A biopsy is a procedure in which the doctor removes a sample of tissue. A pathologist looks at the tissue under a microscope and runs other tests to see if the tissue is cancer. Pathology reports play an important role in diagnosing cancer and helping decide treatment options.

Laboratory Test

Doctors may use a variety of laboratory tests if cancer is suspected. In conducting lab tests for cancer, samples of blood, urine, other bodily fluids or tissue are examined for abnormal cells or tumor markers that may determine whether a person has the disease or a precancerous condition. Lab tests also may be used to screen high-risk patients, pinpoint the stage of cancer, identify treatment options and evaluate whether the cancer is responding to treatment. Lab tests may also be used to determine whether a patient has a cancer recurrence—a disease that has returned to its original location—or whether a new cancer has developed.  

For more information about our laboratory test for cancer, please click here

Certain cancer treatments like chemotherapy or surgery are very common. Others like radionuclide therapy and Car T cell are infrequently used.
The types of treatment that you have will depend on the type of cancer you have and how advanced it is. Some people with cancer will have only one treatment. But most people have a combination of treatments, such as surgery with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. You may also have immunotherapy, targeted therapy, or hormone therapy.

For more information about our cancer treatments, please click here

Surgery

Surgery, is a procedure in which a surgeon removes cancer from your body. Surgeons are medical doctors with special training in surgery.
There are several types of cancer surgery:

• Curative surgery simply involves removal of a cancerous tumor. It works best on localized cancers that haven't yet spread to other parts of the body.
• Reconstructive surgery returns the body to normal or near-normal appearance or function following cancer treatment. The most common is breast reconstruction surgery after a mastectomy (breast removal).  
• Palliative surgery is used to improve a patient’s quality of life by easing pain or other symptoms caused by advanced or untreatable cancer. Palliative surgery is not a cure or anti-cancer treatment.
• Minimally invasive surgery employs advanced techniques to remove tumors through tiny incisions. Minimally invasive procedures can also be performed by robotic arms controlled by surgeons.  

Radiotherapy

Radiotherapy (also called radiation therapy) is a cancer treatment that uses high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells by damaging their DNA. Cancer cells whose DNA is damaged beyond repair stop dividing or die. When the damaged cells die, they are broken down and removed by the body.

Radiation Therapy Technologies

• TrueBeam sTx – delivers powerful, accurate and fast image-guided treatments
• TomoTherapy – confirms a patient's tumor before treatment and precisely delivers radiation therapy
• CT Simulator – provides precise and flexible scanning and dosing delivery
• High Dose Rate (HDR) Afterloader – includes a computer-based management system allowing for proper placement, replacement and dosing
• Gamma Knife Radiosurgery
• IORT

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a drug treatment that uses powerful chemicals to kill fast-growing cells in your body. Chemotherapy is most often used to treat cancer, since cancer cells grow and multiply much more quickly than most cells in the body. Many different chemotherapy drugs are available.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy is a type of cancer treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer. The immune system helps your body fight infections and other diseases. It is made up of white blood cells and organs and tissues of the lymph system.

Types of immunotherapies

• Immune checkpoint therapy helps cancer-fighting immune cells, called T cells, mount a longer-lasting response against the cancer.
• Adoptive cellular therapy / Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy increases the number and/or effectiveness of immune cells, usually T cells, which improves the power of the immune response against the cancer.

Targeted Therapy

Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment that targets proteins that control how cancer cells grow, divide, and spread.

Hormone Therapy

Hormone therapy is a cancer treatment that slows or stops the growth of prostate and breast cancer that uses hormones to grow.

Bone Marrow Transplant

Bone Marrow transplants are procedures that restore blood-forming stem cells in people who have had theirs destroyed by the very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy that are used to treat certain cancers.

Blood-forming stem cells are important because they grow into different types of blood cells. The main types of blood cells are:

• White blood cells, which are part of your immune system and help your body fight infection
• Red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout your body
• Platelets, which help the blood clot

You need all three types of blood cells to be healthy.

Radiofrequency Ablation

Radiofrequency ablation for cancer is a minimally invasive procedure that uses electrical energy and heat to destroy cancer cells. The radiologist uses imaging tests to guide a thin needle through the skin or through an incision and into the cancer tissue. High-frequency energy passes through the needle and causes the surrounding tissue to heat up, killing the nearby cells.

Targeted Radionuclide Therapy

Targeted radionuclide therapy (also called molecular radiotherapy) involves a radioactive drug called a radiopharmaceutical that targets cancer cells. Radiopharmaceuticals typically consist of a radioactive atom (also known as a radionuclide) combined with a cell-targeting molecule that seeks and destroys cancer cells.

Type of cancers treated with radionuclide therapy:

1. Neuroendocrine Tumours (NETs): Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) is used to treat NETs
2. Prostate Cancer: Lutetium-177 Prostate-specific membrane antigen (LuPSMA) is used for patients with advanced prostate cancer
3. Thyroid Cancer: Radioactive iodine (Iodine-131) has been used to treat thyroid cancer for almost 80 years. This is done to treat some patients after thyroidectomy to destroy any remaining cancer cells and prevent the thyroid cancer returning.

Supportive Treatment

Palliative care is a holistic approach that helps ease the suffering of cancer patients and cancer survivors. Despite popular belief, palliative care is not just for patients with untreatable or terminal cancer. The goal is to provide the best possible quality of life at every stage of treatment, starting at diagnosis. Palliative care is also known as supportive care or symptom control.

Palliative care can include:

• Management of pain, nausea, loss of appetite and other treatment-related symptoms
• Treatment of depression and anxiety
• End of life or hospice care

For more information about our palliative care, click here

Our patient support group are set up to help our patients to connect with others, share coping strategies and promote mutual emotional support. Essential to the group are cancer survivors and their relatives, who provide companionship and reassurance to other cancer patients and their carers with their own experience. Clinical team are also invited to give advice to patients and their carers in the group to facilitate the patient journey.