SINGAPORE – Mount Alvernia Hospital will build a new $25 million cancer centre to treat up to 1,000 patients a year without the need for a wait list.

The hospital said the centre, to be completed in 2020, will enable patients to start treatment as quickly as possible.

“The cancer centre is being built to meet the growing needs of the ageing population,” said the hospital’s chief executive Dr James Lam on Wednesday (June 26).

“With age, the cancer rate will go up. So we expect that the demand for good quality cancer care will only go up.”

The new 1,330 sq m facility will offer services like haematology and radiation oncology.

Mount Alvernia Hospital, a 305-bed, not-for-profit general acute care private hospital, has appointed cancer care provider Icon SOC to build and manage the new centre.

It will replace the current Icon SOC clinic at the hospital, which has been in operation since 2007 and treats around 250 patients each year.

The new centre will provide medical oncology, allied health, pathology and pharmacy services, positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scan, as well as the latest Varian TrueBeam Linear Accelerator.

The machine provides advanced precision and speed in radiation therapy, said Mr Mark Middleton, Icon Group’s group CEO.

The centre will also function as the regional training hub for radiation oncologists, medical physicists and radiation therapists in the Asia-Pacific region, as part of the tie-up between Icon SOC and Varian Medical Systems, a company that provides solutions for advancing cancer treatment.

Cancer is currently the leading cause of death in Singapore, responsible for 29.1 per cent of deaths in 2017.

Last year (2018), there were 26,164 people living with cancer here and it is projected to increase to 35,229 in 2025.

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