Iconic Community / 16 Mar, 2021

Women’s Hour: Cancer Conversations

Icon Writers

A female perspective from our global oncology leaders

In recognition of International Women’s Day and Singapore’s Year of Celebrating Women, Icon Cancer Centre Singapore Medical Oncologists Dr Karmen Wong and Dr Lee Guek Eng were recently joined by Icon Cancer Centre Australia Radiation Oncologist Dr Rebecca Chin, Medical Oncologist Dr Agnieszka Malczewski and Haematologist Dr Renee Squires for an hour Facebook Live Q&A focusing on female health, cancers in women, fertility, genetics, research and more.

Throughout the session our panel of experienced female cancer specialists discussed a variety of topics and answered questions from our patients, which included:

  • 2.23 – Dr Rebecca Chin: Recent advances in radiation therapy for gynaecological cancers
  • 2.42 – When was radiation therapy first used to treat cancer?
  • 3.18 – What improvements have there been in radiation therapy treatment for cancer?
  • 9.07 – What are the latest advances in radiation therapy treatment?
  • 9.27 – How does adaptive radiation therapy treatment work to treat cancer?
  • 12.44 – Dr Lee Guek Eng: Breast cancer in young women
  • 13.09 – How common is breast cancer in females?
  • 14.10 – What are the current recommendations for breast cancer screening?
  • 14.24 – Why is it important to talk about breast cancer in young women in the Asian population?
  • 15.09 – What is the Icon Young Women’s Cancer Program and how does it support young women with cancer?
  • 15.47 – What are some of the social and emotional issues faced by young women with cancer?
  • 17.22 – What are the options for fertility preservation for young women with breast cancer?
  • 18.36 – What is hereditary breast cancer?
  • 20.00 – Dr Agnieszka Malczewski: Onco-Immunology
  • 21.39 – What is onco-immunology?
  • 22.52 – Why has immunotherapy been more successful in treating melanomas compared to other cancer types?
  • 23.45 – What is immunotherapy and how does it work?
  • 27.20 – What research is being done to find out why some people respond to immunotherapy treatment better than others?
  • 29.50 – Dr Renee Squires: Physiological changes during pregnancy
  • 30.16 – What are the normal changes that happen to your blood during pregnancy?
  • 31.04 – Why do women get anaemia during pregnancy?
  • 31.47 – When is anaemia during pregnancy an expected gestational anaemia or secondary to something else?
  • 34.37 – Why does thrombocytopenia (low platelets) occur during pregnancy?
  • 36.39 – Why do pregnant women have higher-than-usual white blood cell counts?
  • 37.28 – Why do clotting factors increase during pregnancy?

Patient Q&A

  • 39.32 – I have Stage 1 breast cancer. I have had a lumpectomy, radiation therapy and am taking tamoxifen. Could there be any cancer cells remaining in the breast? Is there anything else I can do to prevent it returning?
  • 42.49 – If a woman has breast cancer in one breast, how likely is it that breast cancer can occur in the other breast in the future?
  • 43.56 – What does being in remission mean? Does it mean that all the cancer has gone or is it when treatment has finished, and there is no change in the size of the cancer?
  • 45.24 – Can you tell us more about the latest in cancer treatments and research, for example immunotherapy and CAR T therapy?
  • 49.13 – Are there any immunotherapy treatments for triple negative breast cancer? What are the side effects of immunotherapy for breast cancer?
  • 52.07 – Should I have the COVID-19 vaccine during chemotherapy treatment/post-chemotherapy during active surveillance/during immunotherapy treatment?
  • 54.33 – I have finished my treatment for breast cancer. Is it safe for me to use vaginal oestrogen cream (triple negative and hormone-positive patients)? What is your opinion on Monalisa Touch therapy for vaginal atrophy?
  • 56.43 – What is the effect of radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatment on female hormones?
  • 58.54 – What is the risk and prevalence of cancer in transgender women?
View all Iconic Articles

Search