New scheme to make genetic screening more accessible
The National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) and the Singapore Cancer Society (SCS) have announced a partnership that aims to make cancer detection, prevention and treatment more accessible to patients who require financial aid.
Under the agreement signed yesterday, NCCS and SCS will launch a genetic screening programme to identify patients with a genetic predisposition to cancer, said NCCS medical director William Hwang.
A total of $2.6 million will be co-funded by NCCS and SCS to support the programme over the next three years.
Prof Hwang said the programme will extend subsidised screenings and prevention measures to patients' families.
"The cancer genetics team at NCCS sees about a hundred patients a week, but the needs are far more than that," he said.
An estimated 500 patients seen at NCCS each year have a genetic predisposition for cancer. The programme is expected to benefit more than 400 patients this year and almost 800 patients in 2021, about a quarter of whom are expected to require financial aid.
Community Health Assist Scheme card holders can get up to $1,000 a year in financial assistance under the programme.
Associate Professor Joanne Ngeow, who heads the Cancer Genetics Service at NCCS, said: "In one in 10 cancer patients, regardless of the sub-type, the genetic factor is the predominant reason why they have a significantly higher risk of cancer compared to the generation population, a six to tenfold increased risk."
There are more than 400 known cancer predisposition syndromes, Prof Ngeow said.
She added: "Extensive research has shown if we monitor these patients carefully with increased or earlier imaging, or surveillance like colonoscopies, they do as well as patients without a genetic predisposition."
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