Icon Cancer Centre and Mount Alvernia Hospital launch Singapore’s first integrated private cancer centre

The centre will be home to services such as medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology and a pharmacy which facilitates chemotherapy compounding services, all under one roof.

Icon also announces key partnerships and initiatives in a commitment to making cancer care more accessible at the new centre.

Together the partners plan to facilitate more comprehensive genomic profiling data to increase access to more trial options for cancer patients. This first-ever collaboration in SEA will help advance the biopharmaceutical research and development ecosystem for healthcare professionals, institutions and patients by taking a more personalised approach to care and offering people with cancer more treatment options.

Presently, the cancer genomic testing process encompasses biological sampling from a patient, after which the test results are returned to the requesting doctor. Unless a doctor is aware of an existing clinical trial, they are likely to prescribe their patient a standard therapy at that juncture. Through this collaboration, Oncoshot, Icon and Roche will be able to easily identify cancer patients who are a match for existing clinical trials being run within their networks. Furthermore, real-time population matching will also enable companies and clinical research organisations (CROs) on the Oncoshot clinical trial platform to engage Icon as a preferred clinical trial centre, increasing patient access to clinical trial options for their cancer.

Elevating cancer care through theranostics with Quantum Pharma Singapore

At the official opening ceremony, Icon also announced a partnership with Quantum Pharma (owned by Quantum Health). This partnership will see in-house radiopharmacy established within the integrated cancer centre. Under the partnership, Quantum Pharma will utilise a radiation therapy bunker to produce radiopharmaceuticals, due to its radiation exposure shielding. This will accelerate the development of radiopharmaceuticals for patients in Singapore and potential use across Icon Group’s broader network.

Radiopharmaceutical production is essential in the delivery of a class of cancer treatment called Theranostics. Theranostics is an emerging class of cancer treatments that uses one radioactive drug to identify and diagnose specific targets, known as tumour receptors via a PET-CT scan – and a second therapeutic radioactive nuclide attached to the same drug to deliver treatment directly to the tumour cells. It is used to treat cancers that have spread (metastasised), or where advanced cancer has not responded to other treatments. The most experience and success has been in thyroid, neuroblastomas and non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma cancers and recently in metastatic prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours.

This partnership will extend to the research and development of not only theranostics, but also other cancer treatments through Quantum Pharma’s expertise with radioactive tracers. This will bring hope and new opportunities to patients with very limited options left to treat their cancer.

Developing novel cancer treatments and keeping it accessible with Icon Cancer Foundation

Committed to providing patients across ASEAN with improved patient access to medications and emerging treatments, Icon Cancer Centre Singapore will launch the Singapore arm of the Icon Cancer Foundation. As the first cancer foundation in the private sector, Icon Cancer Centre Singapore is poised to become the first private cancer centre in Singapore to be able to launch Investigator-Initiated Trials (IIT) initiated by our Icon doctors with a focus on advancing radiation treatments.

Icon Cancer Centre at Mount Alvernia will serve as Icon Singapore’s clinical trial headquarters, with full-service facilities and a dedicated team of clinical trial coordinators and research nurses to fully support and care for patients on trials. Since the inception of its formal clinical trials unit in 2021, Icon Cancer Centre Singapore has launched 15 clinical trials, with 9 more scheduled to begin in the coming months. Moving forward, the key research focus will be on paediatric oncology, radiation oncology and theranostics, in addition to medical oncology and haematology.

The centre’s research capabilities are underpinned by Icon Group’s 35-year+ experience in research and clinical trials. This experience has seen Icon contribute to new lines of treatments and improvements in standard of care, including one of the world’s largest advanced prostate cancer trials. This expertise will help bring leading clinical trials and research projects into Singapore providing hope to people who have exhausted traditional lines of treatment and increasing access to new techniques and treatment regimes.

Enhancing accessibility of cancer care with Singlife

Beyond the offerings of Icon Cancer Centre as an integrated cancer facility with cutting-edge technology and evidence-based patient care, Icon is committed to making services affordable and accessible to people from all walks of life. Icon Cancer Centre has partnered homegrown financial services company Singlife to provide more accessible and sustainable cancer treatments and services, so that they can focus on recovery.

Icon and Singlife have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore further collaboration to bring greater affordability to customers, as guided by the cancer treatment and service guidelines released by the Ministry of Health.