Lankan parents smile their cares away

'In cancer, there is hope':

by Rosanne Koelmeyer Anderson

The National University Hospital (NUH) Singapore Children's Cancer Centre was similar to that of a Nursery School. Environment friendly and designed with a playing area, a colourful child friendly environment, children are being housed to treat childhood cancers, administer treatment and follow ups for cancer and childhood cancer survivors.

The centre for clinical research in paediatric oncology and paediatric stem cell transplantation at NUH focuses on bringing paediatric cancer treatment to the highest in Asia. Prof. Allen Yeoh Eng Juh, Senior Consultant , Department of Paediatric, NUH said in all Asian countries fifty per cent of childhood cancers occurred below the age of twenty five .

"However, there is much hope as childhood cancers are highly curable." In Sri Lanka as well as in the Asian region on the whole there is a dearth of Paediatric Oncologists.

With the specialized treatment available at the National Healthcare Group of Hospitals and the NUH, a leader in public healthcare in Singapore many parents in the Asian region now opt to seek treatment for childhood cancers in Singapore at a comparatively affordable price.

In the wake of alternative treatment in Singapore so it was for a young Sri Lankan couple whose only child, three and a half year old Ahinsa Kavihari Manamendran of Gampaha who was detected with leukaemia and taken to Singapore for treatment for the most common of cancers in the world.

Hearing that there was a journalist from Sri Lanka touring the hospital Ahinsa's parents came forward to relate their pitiful story, one of many successful stories that has brought light into the darkest of days in the lives of many cancer suffers the world over.

In an interview with the parents of little Ahinsa whose tears of sorrow had now turned to tears of joy, it was revealed that the child had first developed fever and gone to Durdans Hospital in Colombo for treatment where several blood tests were taken and she was finally detected with leukaemia and subsequently referred to the Maharagama Cancer Hospital where she was treated by Dr Damayanthi Pieris.

The Maharagama Cancer Hospital is good but it is overcrowded and it is an ongoing battle for the medical staff. 'While receiving treatment here which had to accommodate 2-3 patients on a bed on clinic days it was even more depressing.

However, due to the good will of a Sri Lankan well-wisher(who did not want to be identified) who came forward to pay for the course of treatment for the child in Singapore for two years these fortunate parents were in a position to take the child to Singapore for treatment. But it doesn't end with that.

It is still difficult for us to make ends meet. We have to have something extra to make ends meet, for incidental expenses. Ahinsa's father hopes he would be able to find some work which would ease their burden soon.

The child has been receiving treatment for the past ten months and considerable improvement has been recorded. The lethargy and constant drowsiness which the child was experiencing due to the disease is no more and the child is responding very well' says Ahinsa's parents in unison.

They were happy to give this interview and said, 'people in Sri Lanka should know that there is hope for children with leukaemia, it is no longer a death sentence and medical treatment in Singapore has given us hope for a better tomorrow'. The course of treatment ends in April 2009.

Childhood leukaemia is the most common of childhood cancer in the world and despite the vast improvement in cure in the developed countries having achieved an 80 per cent cure in Singapore and the west, for many developing countries this unfortunately still seems to remain a death sentence.

It is anticipated that if there is death due to leukaemia it is because they do not receive appropriate medical care. For those who are treated, the late presentation, cost, compliance and infectious deaths are important problems that hinder the progress of treatment in children with cancer in many developing countries. Hence, improvement in supportive care and parental education are critical areas before higher cure rates can be realized, Dr Allen Yeoh said.

In NUH highly sensitive molecular techniques have been developed to reliably detect one leukaemia cell in the background of 10,000 normal cells, an almost 200 fold improvement in sensitivity compared to conventional microscopy.

This has helped measure the early response of each individual patient to therapy which is highly predicative of the eventual chance of cure. Currently patients receiving treatment at NUH who rapidly cleared their leukaemia have excellent outcome, 90 per cent cure and are given reduced intensity of chemotherapy while patients with poor response received upfront intensified therapy including bone marrow transplantation.

This tailored therapy allows us to administer the optimal intensity of therapy upfront for every patient to maximize the chance of cure and minimize long term side effects, Dr Allen Yeoh Eng Juh explained. Meanwhile, the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) Sing Health is a premier cancer research and treatment facility in Singapore and in the Asian region.

It sees the largest number of cancer cases in Singapore; about 68 per cent of the public sector medical oncology cases and 74 per cent of radiation oncology cases, a one-stop specialist centre housing Singapore's largest talent pool of internationally qualified oncologists with state-of-the-art equipment.

So, remember, cancer is not contagious, laughter is! And as Lord Byron said 'Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.'

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