Cancer is an uncontrolled and abnormal cell growth that can spread to other parts of the body, and disrupt normal bodily functions. Childhood cancers grow more rapidly than adult cancers because the cancer tissues grow together with the fast-growing tissues of the child. What happens when a child is diagnosed with Cancer?

Treatments

When you seek care at Parkway Cancer Centres, you have access to a wide variety of treatment options. Depending on your health, physical status, type, origin and stage of cancer, your treatment option may be surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or a combination of these, which would then be referred to as the, Multi - Disciplinary Approach.

Chemotherapy

The biggest advancement in the field of cancer treatment is the fast expanding arsenal of medicines in the treatment of cancer. These include cytotoxic agents as well as biologic agents and “targeted cancer therapies”.

These newer chemotherapies are associated with higher effectiveness, less side effects and improved overall results. Some of these drugs have no hair loss, nausea, vomiting or other significant side effects.

The administration of chemotherapy is closely supervised by senior consultant medical oncologists and carried out by nurses with specialised training in Oncology.

Most of the chemotherapy is given in one of our four ambulatory treatment centres in Mount Elizabeth Medical Hospital and Gleneagles Hospital.

The various applications of chemotherapy include:

• Upfront or induction chemotherapy to shrink the tumour size before definitive local treatment with either surgery or radiotherapy;
• Concurrent chemo-radiation where the drugs are used as radio-sensitisers to improve the effectiveness of radiotherapy;
• Adjuvant chemotherapy (therapy after the initial treatment of cancer to suppress the secondary tumour formation) where the drugs are given after surgery or radiotherapy to treat micro-metastases which cannot be seen, so that patients will have a higher chance of cure;
• Curative chemotherapy in the treatment of cancers which are very chemo-sensitive like lymphoma, germ cell tumours and leukemias; High-dose chemotherapy and stem cell rescue;
• Palliative chemotherapy for advanced cancers aimed at killing the cancer cells, controlling disease, preserving quality-of-life and prolonging overall survival.

Radiation Therapy

The greatest challenge for Radiation Therapy is to attain the highest probability of cure with the least side effects.

Modern advances in computers and the parallel advances in imaging and biomedical engineering have allowed a higher level of complexity to be incorporated into radiation treatment planning and delivery. This has resulted in better localisation of tumours, more accurate delivery of radiation into the tumour and better avoidance of radiation high doses into normal tissues.

Our Centre offers proven radiation treatment for cancers and benign tumours. These treatments are either carried out alone or as part of a multi-modality treatment (with chemotherapy or surgery).

The treatments include:

• Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)
• Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT)
• 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy
• Conventional Radiation Therapy
• Stereotactic Radiation Therapy
• Radiosurgery
• Brachytherapy and Implants

We are the first in Southeast Asia to provide TomoTherapy (Image-Guided Radiation Therapy) using a TomoTherapy HI-ART System since March 2006.

It delivers precise treatment doses to the tumour and minimum radiation is deposited on healthy tissue.

With this system, the radiation oncologist and therapists can check the location of the patient’s tumour before each treatment, using the computed tomography images taken with the machine, before delivering painless and precise radiation therapy based on a carefully customised plan.

Surgery

Our specialist surgeons have extensive experience in the surgical management of cancer. The major advances in surgery are readily available in our Centre.

These include radical surgery for advanced cancers, conservation surgery, minimal access surgery and reconstructive surgery.

We have surgical oncologists who specialise in each of these areas:

• Breast surgery
• Colorectal surgery
• Thoracic surgery
• Head and Neck surgery
• Otorhinolaryngology
• Gynaecological surgery
• Neurosurgery - Orthopaedic surgery
• Urological surgery
• Gastrointestinal and Hepatic surgery
• Reconstructive surgery
• General surgery

Supporting the surgeons is a team of anaesthetists, intensivists, and physiotherapy and rehabilitation team to provide the necessary pre- and post-operative care to ensure safe and speedy recovery.