Be Informed, Be You

YFLO event Be Informed, Be You – the seminar on ‘How we fight, prevent, and/or pre-empt cancer was held on 24th February, by a world renowned medical oncologist Dr Ang Peng Tiam, at Osteostrong. Dr Ang Peng Tiam graduated from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with Bachelor in Medicine and Surgery in 1982. He did his residency in Internal Medicine and was conferred the Master of Medicine (Internal Medicine) in 1986. He completed his Fellowship in Medical Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Centre, Houston, Texas and Stanford University Medical Centre in 1989.

In this session, Dr Ang spoke about different forms of cancer, the prominent ones being lung cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. He spoke about the major causes of these cancer forms such as smoking, chewing tobacco, low fibre diet, obesity, early pregnancy etc. Lung cancer is generally associated with people who smoke. However, there is a rising incidence of lung and breast cancer in women who don’t smoke, especially Asian women. This could be due to a high fat and low fibre diet. This is one of the reasons why colorectal cancer is higher in the US and similar countries as compared to India. Similarly, Obesity and lack of exercise could also be a possible cause. Breast cancer in India is also prominent since women get married at an early age and more uninterrupted cycles are associated with breast cancer possibilities. Therefore, late menarche, early pregnancy and breast feeding are leading causes of breast cancer in Indian women. Additionally, vaccination is also considered as a cause of cancer. For instance, Hepatitis B vaccination is associated with liver cancer. Therefore, in Singapore children are vaccinated with Hepatitis C.

The seminar enlightened us on how we can detect early stages of cancer, how to analyse cancer and cancer care at its different stages. There are many forms of cancer without any symptoms and with non specific symptoms.

Dr Ang also gave some examples of his previous patients who were suffering from this disease and how they have dealt with it at different stages and have successfully battled this disease. Finally, the session closed with an experience shared by one of his old clients who commended the way in which Dr Ang and his team helped her father to battle cancer .