Before GH
One thing I forgot to mention about our discussion with the Penang office rep of St Stamford Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou was that he did offer to pass information on my dad's case to the doctors at the hospital. So a few days later my dad called the office to obtain updates. In short, their preliminary suggestions are cryotherapy and immunotherapy.
So when we met Dr D, we had lots of questions and obtained much information. In summary,
(1) Cryotherapy is not suitable for dad because it merely removes tumours, not treating the cancer as a whole since my dad's cancer is of unknown primary source (highly suspect pancreas though).
(2) There is immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer but it's still at experimental stage, with success rate of less than 20%.
(3) Certain immunotherapies have become gold standard for treatment e.g. of lung cancer. Unfortunately, not for pancreatic cancer.
(4) However, the hospitals in China have their own method of immunotherapy and so Dr D had no comment on that.
(5) Treatment such as immunotherapy can be considered after having gone through all other gold standard treatments i.e. as a last resort. My dad is not at that stage yet since FOLFOX is a viable option for him.
(6) At Mount Miriam, FOLFOX is administered via chemo port and so patient doesn't need to be warded but it'll cost about RM4k-5k per cycle. There is also oral option but it'll be stronger dose and it's 3 weeks per cycle (total cost is similar). We can attempt to ask GH for these alternatives.
(7) If after having exhausted the standard treatments and yet still not working, then, cost aside (it's my hypothetical question to Dr D), she would recommend biopsy on the existing lumps and also sent for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to better understand the cancer cells. She cautioned, however, that the use of the latter is based on the theory that mutation causes cancer, which may or may not be true. Thereafter, immunotherapy can be considered.
So our current plan now is to ask GH's oncologist for (in this sequence) oral FOLFOX, chemo port or reclining bed. If they can't offer of these, dad is willing to try the regimen for 2-3 cycles. If sleeping in the ward turns out to be a significant problem, then he'll continue at Mount Miriam.
By the way, once again my dad didn't follow doctor's prescription: he didn't take omeprazole everyday. During my last trip, I reminded him a few times that the PCU specialist said, except for the breakthrough painkiller Oxynorm, all other medicine are to be taken everyday. Haiz.
So when we met Dr D, we had lots of questions and obtained much information. In summary,
(1) Cryotherapy is not suitable for dad because it merely removes tumours, not treating the cancer as a whole since my dad's cancer is of unknown primary source (highly suspect pancreas though).
(2) There is immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer but it's still at experimental stage, with success rate of less than 20%.
(3) Certain immunotherapies have become gold standard for treatment e.g. of lung cancer. Unfortunately, not for pancreatic cancer.
(4) However, the hospitals in China have their own method of immunotherapy and so Dr D had no comment on that.
(5) Treatment such as immunotherapy can be considered after having gone through all other gold standard treatments i.e. as a last resort. My dad is not at that stage yet since FOLFOX is a viable option for him.
(6) At Mount Miriam, FOLFOX is administered via chemo port and so patient doesn't need to be warded but it'll cost about RM4k-5k per cycle. There is also oral option but it'll be stronger dose and it's 3 weeks per cycle (total cost is similar). We can attempt to ask GH for these alternatives.
(7) If after having exhausted the standard treatments and yet still not working, then, cost aside (it's my hypothetical question to Dr D), she would recommend biopsy on the existing lumps and also sent for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to better understand the cancer cells. She cautioned, however, that the use of the latter is based on the theory that mutation causes cancer, which may or may not be true. Thereafter, immunotherapy can be considered.
So our current plan now is to ask GH's oncologist for (in this sequence) oral FOLFOX, chemo port or reclining bed. If they can't offer of these, dad is willing to try the regimen for 2-3 cycles. If sleeping in the ward turns out to be a significant problem, then he'll continue at Mount Miriam.
By the way, once again my dad didn't follow doctor's prescription: he didn't take omeprazole everyday. During my last trip, I reminded him a few times that the PCU specialist said, except for the breakthrough painkiller Oxynorm, all other medicine are to be taken everyday. Haiz.
Comments
why don't you try SJMC in Subang for treatment. They are considered as one of the best.
Also if NGS is under consideration, Please look into TS15 (Illumina Platform).
This is because of financial constraint and the fact that my dad is living with my sis in Butterworth where it's more comfortable (compared to my place in PJ) with more people around to look after him.