Proton beam cancer therapy available in S'pore from 2023

Advanced radiation treatment better targets tumours, minimising surrounding damage

- Joyce Teo

Proton beam therapy, an advanced form of radiation treatment that can target cancer tumours with greater precision and minimise damage to surrounding tissues and organs, should be available in Singapore by the first quarter of 2023.

The Goh Cheng Liang Proton Therapy Centre at the new National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) building in Outram will start operations in the first quarter of 2023.

Two other centres in the private sector will also offer proton beam therapy at around the same time.

Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital plans to offer the therapy from next February.

The Singapore Institute of Advanced Medicine Holdings (SAM), a new cancer centre in Biopolis Drive, is awaiting the go-ahead from the authorities to start offering it, possibly by the end of 2022, said its chairman and chief executive officer Djeng Shih Kien.

While conventional radiotherapy uses X-rays, proton beam therapy uses positively charged subatomic particles that allow for more precise targeting of cancer cells.

This causes less damage to nearby healthy tissues and organs, which means there are fewer treatment-related side effects.