THE National Cancer Centre is using $6 million for research into a rare childhood cancer.
Half the money has come from the Children's Cancer Foundation - part of a three-year endowment fund. This is the first time a charity has invested so heavily in research, said the centre's director, Professor Soo Khee Chee.
The Ministry of Health has matched that grant as part of its Health Research Endowment Fund, to make up the rest of the $6 million.
Dr Tan Hiang Khoon, chairman of the foundation, said the charity has so far focused on support services, like counselling and financial assistance. But it is now investing in research, he said, because 'it has always been our intention to provide a holistic approach to managing childhood cancer'.
There are 120 new cases of childhood cancer here every year, with leukaemia, lymphomas, brain tumours and solid tumours being the most common.
The cancer targeted by the new funding is a fast-growing tumour that appears as a painless lump in the soft tissue of the head, neck, trunk or limbs of a child or adolescent's body. It is called rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS).
Little is known about it but it affects 10 kids every year in Singapore.
Daeng Herryadi Sahak, now 14, was diagnosed with RMS at the age of 10.
His father, a coach driver, said the swelling on his son's left cheek was the size of a 50-cent coin and as there was no pain, they thought nothing of it. But when it grew to the size of an apple, Daeng was taken to KK Women's and Children's Hospital.
He had two operations, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The treatment was a success. Daeng now has a scan every six months to make sure he is cancer-free.
Currently, most patients who seek treatment are in the late stages of the disease and have only a 40 to 50 per cent chance of survival, said Dr Chui Chan Hon, one of the project's principal investigators.
Though it is rare here, there are an estimated 10,000 new cases in Asia annually, said Dr Tan. He believes the research will have 'far-reaching implications' for other childhood cancers as well.