FASTER, accurate and consistent cancer care remains among the biggest gaps faced by Filipino patients, Singapore-based medical oncologist Dr. Ang Peng Tiam said.
Ang has assessed responses to a question from The Manila Times about the biggest challenges Filipino patients face when seeking cancer treatment during the 20th anniversary celebration of Parkway Cancer Center (PCC) in Makati City on Friday.
“It is very hard for me to generalize,” Ang said.
“But all I can say is, at this time, in the Philippines, what I find lacking is this ability to move fast enough, to move accurately enough, consistently,” he added.
Ang said the Philippines has good hospitals and doctors, but there are areas where patients may not receive consistent care.
For context, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, through its Global Cancer Observatory, estimated that the Philippines had 188,976 new cancer cases and 113,369 cancer deaths in 2022. It also estimated 466,012 people living with cancer who had been diagnosed within the previous five years.
Ang said the speed of diagnostic testing, staging and treatment planning is one factor that leads some Filipino patients to seek care in Singapore.
He cited the case of a patient suspected of having breast cancer who, according to Ang, had been told that a PET-CT scan in the Philippines could be scheduled two weeks later, followed by a biopsy and several more days for the results.
In Singapore, he said, the patient underwent a PET scan in the morning, a biopsy in the afternoon and completed staging before treatment was started the following day.
“One of the big reasons why people come to Singapore is within 48 hours of arrival, we should be able to complete our evaluation and come up with a proposed treatment program,” Ang said.
Ang said he is now seeing more Filipino patients seeking medical evaluation soon after learning they may have cancer.
He said earlier evaluation can allow treatment decisions to be made before the disease progresses further.
PCC marks 20 years
Ang’s remarks came as PCC marked its 20th anniversary, celebrating two decades of cancer care and introducing Trust, Care and Hope as its core values for its next chapter.
Founded in 2006, PCC was established by Ang and fellow physicians Dr. Khoo Kei Siong, Dr. Teo Cheng Peng and Dr. Lim Hong Liang to provide coordinated and multidisciplinary cancer care.
Ang said cancer treatment has changed significantly since he began his oncology career in the 1980s.
“Many of the conditions which we thought are hopeless, today we have found some semblance of good treatment with good prognosis and even cure,” he said.
