IN a major step to advance cancer treatment, St. Luke's Medical Center-Quezon City (SLMC-QC) has announced its new Cancer Specialty Center that aims to deliver compassionate, all-encompassing care by bringing together top oncology specialists.

At the specialty center, several cancer specialists work together in each specialized team to create individualized cancer treatment programs to expedite treatment and enhance outcomes.

SLMC-QC has selected seven cancer types that need specialized care, including bone malignancies and sarcoma, neuroendocrine tumors and lymphoma, breast cancer, thoracic malignancies, colorectal cancer, hepatobiliary cancer, and pancreatic cancers.

"By assembling interdisciplinary teams of specialists focused on particular cancer types, this guarantees that patients receive timely, appropriate care that is customized from the time of diagnosis throughout their cancer journey," said Dr. Rubi Li.

Also, the center offers specialized clinics where multidisciplinary teams work together on patient issues — a triage for initial assessment and navigation, and family conferences.

"We arrange meetings and use a strategy that encourages smooth communication and teamwork among experts, leading to more effective and efficient patient care," Li added.

This ensures that patients receive fast, appropriate, and customized care from diagnosis to survivorship by bringing together multidisciplinary teams of experts focused on certain cancer types.

PuroKalusugan

On the other hand, the Department of Health (DOH) and the local government of Quezon City have teamed up for the PuroKalusugan — a program by the department aimed at delivering essential health care services directly to residents of "puroks" or barangay zones nationwide.

Particularly, the DOH and the Quezon City local government have teamed up for a health caravan in celebration of Philippine Heart Month and National Cancer Awareness Month, which was held at Barangay Loyola Heights Covered Court on Feb. 21.

With the theme "Committed sa bagong you na healthy" (Committed to the healthy new you), the event had a Zumba and fitness demonstration, and cooking show to encourage people to live a better and healthy life.

Also present in the events were the Philippine Heart Association, the Hepatology Society of the Philippines, the Philippine Cancer Society, Cancer Coalition, and the National Nutrition Council, who all had stations at the event that each participant could go through. Once the participants finish all the stations, they can claim a P200 voucher, which they can use to buy vegetables provided by the National Nutrition Council.

"I hope you [take advantage] of the services available here. Let's use this event to make a small change in our lifestyle," said Dir. Lester Tam, regional director of DOH-Metro Manila Center for Health Development.

Dr. Jean Pauline Tee, medical coordinator of the Quezon City Non-Communicative Disease, said: "One of the reasons why Quezon City was chosen as the venue of the Department of Health is because of the Calorie Labeling Ordinance. It was passed on March 21, 2024, the first in Southeast Asia."