$50m grant for research to find better ways of treating lymphoma, colorectal cancer in S'pore

Singapore's fight against cancer has received another boost, with $50 million in national grant funding awarded to two research teams aiming to better understand, diagnose and find precise treatments for two common cancers lymphoma and colorectal cancer.

- Joyce Teo

The focus is on treating individuals with the right treatment at the right time, instead of a one-sizefits-all approach, which does not take into account variables that influence a person's cancer development and response to treatment.

One of the teams is studying Asian-centric lymphomas to find cost-effective and innovative treatments, while the other will develop new approaches to screen, detect and treat colorectal cancer. They will receive $25 million each.

This was announced on May 24 at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), which is a key player in the two five-year research programmes.

Lymphomas are the fifth most common cancer in Singapore, with more than 5,000 new cases diagnosed between 2017 and 2021. Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer affecting both men and women, with 12,239 new cases diagnosed in that period.

The lymphoma research, which comes under the Symphony 2.0 (Singapore Lymphoma Translational Study 2.0) research programme, is a continuation of a decade's worth of work by the same group.

Lymphoma develops when white blood cells, called lymphocytes, grow out of control. It is not a single disease.