A care for tummy; a hope for cancer

An evening ripe with knowledge and debated points on the latest medical advancements, 2 March, 2019, saw a health seminar organised by the Dhaka office of Parkway Hospitals, Singapore Pte Ltd, at the exclusive Lakeshore Hotel Gulshan. With the orators for the seminar being two specialists flown in from Singapore's Parkway Cancer Centre and Mount Elizabeth Hospital respectively, the limelight of the session was stolen by the speeches themselves, elaborating on gastroenterology and immunotherapy,

The agendas for the evening were set: to raise awareness about hot issues in the relevant medical fields and preach Parkway Hospitals' holistic approach to multi-disciplinary specialist care. 

With the seminar being on 'A Care for Tummy; A Hope for Cancer,' senior consultant of medical oncology, Dr Foo Kian Fong and senior consultant on gastroenterology, Dr Ling Khoon Lin shared riveting developments when it comes to abdominal pain and treating cancer with immunotherapy.

“Originally, we would treat cancer with chemotherapy, but unfortunately, chemotherapy has a lot of side effects, such as losing hair and vomiting. Then, we eventually took to immunotherapy. This is where we aim to stimulate the patient's own immune system so it recognises the foreign antigens and attacks the cancerous cells,” explains Dr Foo.

With real case studies of patients and relevant scans, the presentation further shed light on the various conundrums of immunotherapy. In a nutshell, while an exciting discovery, immunotherapy also comes with its host of side effects, but still proves hopeful for cancer treatment.

On another frontier, Dr Ling presented on his specialty and revealed, “Cancer is not the most common cause of abdominal pain. Pain in the stomach may be caused by a number of reasons, such as peptic/gastric ulcers, gallstones, inflammatory bowel diseases, and even acid reflux and food poisoning.”

In more severe cases where the pain lasts for more than 24-48 hours, and is coupled with persistent nausea and vomiting, or worse, vomiting blood, medical attention is absolutely necessary.

Followed by an enlightening Q/A session where attendees' sought solutions to burning questions and with closing statements from Zahid Khan, Director of the Dhaka Office of Parkway Hospitals, Singapore Pte Ltd, the session was concluded, proving nothing short of a successful endeavour.