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Recent advances in chemotherapy have definitely improved treatment outcomes for patients, and at the same time minimized side effects such as hair loss, sore mouth, nausea, and vomiting. Conventional chemotherapy are anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents) given as part of a standardised chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherapycan be given as induction chemotherapy, chemo radiation, adjuvant chemotherapy, curative chemotherapy, high dose chemotherapy with stem cell rescue, and, palliative chemotherapy. It is given in early or advanced cancer as a pill, injection or topically.

Radiation therapy works by using special energy waves to damage the DNA in cancer cells, thereby destroying the cancer cells. The new mode of radiation therapy is to kill enough cancer cells to maximize the probability of cure and minimize the side effects. There are various types of radiation therapy including external and internal radiation and intensity modulated radiotherapy. Sometimes radiotherapy is given together with chemotherapy to maximise its effectiveness. The team will prescribe the best treatment option based on the patient condition.

The growth of some cancer cells is hormone dependent, such as breast and prostate cancers. When cancer arises in breast or prostate tissue, its growth and spread may be caused by the hormones in the body. Hormone therapy as a cancer treatment involves taking medications which interfere with the activity of the hormones or stop the production of hormones. Our specialist may recommend a tumour hormone receptor test to determine the best treatment options and to learn more about the tumor.

Targeted therapy (or molecular targeted therapy) is designed to treat only certain malignant tumour cells bearing particular cellular signals, thus minimizing damage to normal, healthy cells. Such signals that corrupt a normal cell to become cancerous may be growth signals, angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) signals, signals to avoid cell death (apoptosis) or signals to invade and spread. Drugs that have been developed can include monoclonal antibodies or small molecule inhibitors. These drugs occasionally do have potentially serious side effects that need to be managed properly for them to be used. We regularly use such therapies together or in sequence with conventional chemotherapy. Recognizing that each person responds differently to treatment, our team uses sophisticated technology with good quality control, to monitor and individualize a patient’s treatment.  to modify it if necessary.

Immunotherapy for cancer treatment has been used by our oncology specialists for many years, from monoclonal antibodies, interferons, to recent immune checkpoint inhibitors such as Keytruda (pembrolizumab) , Opdivo (nivolumab) and Ipilimumab (Yervoy).

Our bodies meet the challenge of infections, cancers and other external agents by developing a complex immune system. The genetic and cellular changes that makes cancer what it is, provides the immune system with the means to generate T cell responses that recognize and eradicate cancer cells (The Cancer Immunity Cycle). Immunotherapy (immune system therapy) is harnessing the natural ability of our immune system to combat cancer. As complex as our immune system is, immunotherapies work in different ways. Some are drugs that enhance or boost the immune system in a general way, while others zoom in to activate immune cells or attack specific types of tumour. Being powerful medications, immunotherapy drugs can have serious side effects in some patients and need to be given in a supervised setting. Recognising who might benefit from such treatment from tumour testing and patient assessment is important to exploit the benefits of the drugs.