One-stop shop for cancer therapy opens in Alabang

TOMOTHERAPY HDA-H Series machine in the Tomotherapy treatment room

Cancer, of any type or stage, has become an alarming problem in the Philippines in recent years. Now with over 98,000 patients diagnosed annually, of which 59,000 die because of the disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) predicted a rise in number by 70 percent in the next two decades.

To further address this issue, the Asian Hospital and Medical Center (AHMC) will open its “one-stop shop” for cancer care and management in the country on July 23.

The Asian Cancer Institute (ACI), a multidisciplinary cancer prevention and management facility located at Filinvest City, Alabang, Muntinlupa, aims to tackle cancer by providing modern services with its world-class scientific solutions, research and treatment.

Kind of healing that comforts

“We are putting a solution to this problem. In ACI, we are providing the expertise of Filipinos for the first time with the finest cancer specialists organized as a team. Beyond the expertise, we will provide the kind of healing that comforts,” said Andres Licaros, president and CEO of Asian Hospital and Medical Center.

Licaros said after the patients’ consultation, the ACI team of experts will sit down with the patients to discuss the condition. This would save them time from going from one doctor to another.

He added that aside from the treatment, the patients are given a comforting and compassionate environment where, together with their doctors and kin, they are assisted through support groups psychosocially and spiritually.

“I think the people behind the institution… are the main reason why we are taking pride in sharing this,” Licaros said.

Dr. Corazon Ngelangel, director of ACI, said that what makes ACI special is its global expertise in cancer care that has a “Filipino heart that comforts and heals.”

“Also, patients don’t have to go anywhere else for cancer therapy because ACI has the most advanced technology in the Philippines… innovative and evidence-based,” Ngelangel said.

She added that any data they acquire at ACI will be recorded electronically and will be used as research material for future treatments.

ACI has four integrated centers of excellence: the Emmanuel Center, which conducts screening diagnosis and surgical care; Conquer C Center, which has oncologists with specialized expertise in radiation therapy, nuclear oncology and interventional oncology; Chrys Center 1, which provides medical-hematology-pediatric oncology services; and Chrys Center 2, which gives quality integrative, supportive and palliative care services. The facility center also takes pride of its state-of-the-art, image-guided radiotherapy technology—the TomoDirect Tomotherapy HDA-H Series machine system.

“It is important to give patients proper treatment. For us [doctors], we know how to deal with them who have a lot of baggage because we can feel it,” Conquer C Center coordinator Dr. Johanna Cañal said. “We have to be both realist and optimist at the same time.”

“You cannot fight cancer alone. It takes a team to win this battle,” Ngelangel concluded.