While the Singapore Government is supportive towards research, there are still areas that donors can contribute to and make a difference. Your generous donations will provide seed money to get smaller research projects off the ground or to bridge projects that straddle key research areas.
The research goals of NCIS are to establish proof-of-concept and efficient treatment modalities in humans, especially in the Asian phenotype, and to implement health services research.
Research Achievements
NCIS researchers and their collaborators have put support from the Fund to good use as evidenced from the following examples of research achievements.
Newly Discovered Gene Determines Whether a Person is Likely to Get Cancer
Initial funding from the NCIS Endowment Fund for this project had enabled it to develop. In a research breakthrough, researchers discovered a new "gatekeeper" gene called RUNX3 that determines whether or not a patient will likely get stomach cancer - a common killer in Singapore. In animal cells where the RUNX3 gene is not working well, these cells may undergo uncontrolled growth and turn cancerous. With this discovery, researchers can now focus efforts on this gene for use in the diagnosis and treatment of stomach cancer.
Chemotherapy May Affect Women's Brain Functions
This study compared the brain functions of women who had undergone chemotherapy. While results are still preliminary, there were indications that certain brain functions such as attention, memory and decision-making speed may be affected.
Such findings have great impact as patients undergoing chemotherapy may not be able to fully understand the situation when making important decisions. Also, such findings, if conclusive, may mean that doctors have to also take steps to prevent or reduce the decrease in brain function of patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Hidden Costs in Childhood Cancer
This study was to examine the hidden medical and non-medical costs and the impact of the family with a child stricken with cancer. While it is still ongoing, researchers discovered that many families suffer economic hardship because of the additional costs needed to care for the sick child. The families also find it hard to travel outside of Singapore because of the child and they face difficulties in finding a reliable person to take care of the child if the parents have to work.
This study is likely to have a social impact and may help uncover new implications for families with a child suffering from cancer. The final results when known may lead to new measures to help families cope with their situation.
Measures Needed to Overcome Lack of Awareness for Health Screening
NCIS provided funding to an NUS-led survey in a selected suburban area of Singapore to find out why Singaporeans are less likely to go for health screening. While the results are still preliminary, it appears that disadvantaged communities are more reluctant to go for health screenings due to their finances, lack of awareness and their cultural beliefs.
These results suggest that it may be necessary to have more community health outreach efforts directed to this segment of the population and to make health screening more affordable and assessable.
Partial Breast Irradiation Better for Asian Women
An NCIS study on the effectiveness and side effects of Accelerated Partial Breast Irradiation (APBI) in patients with early stage breast cancer confirmed that this treatment has several benefits over irradiating the entire breast. While such studies have been done in the West, Asian women may respond differently to it. However this study showed that a five-day treatment of APBI is as effective as other conventional methods and may encourage patients to opt for it rather than to delay treatment.
How You Can Help
While some of these exciting reports are preliminary, they do show the possibilities of what seed funding into carefully selected areas of research can yield. The areas that benefit range from coming up with new methods for diagnosis and treatment to changing the way healthcare providers can reach out to the community in order to catch diseases early.
Your donation will help NCIS continue to fund these vital aspects of research. Discoveries and results from such projects can help translate basic research efforts into new medicines, innovative procedures or novel medical devices, to enhance the lives of patients or simply improve the way we reach out to the community to better help them.
Make a donation by filling in the Donor's Form and send to NCIS office together with your donation. Your contribution, in any amount, will add to those of many others to support these worthy causes.
