Sultan Qaboos Comprehensive Cancer Care and Research Centre (SQCCCRC) is continuously strengthening its capacity and capability to become the leading centre of fighting cancer in Oman. One of its other objectives is to prevent cancer.
As a step towards prevention, the SQCCCRC, which has a multidisciplinary team while dealing with care for each patient, also offers screening of patients for genetic mutations. This is important for the family members of the patient.
“There are some patients who have genetic mutations, which we find during evaluation,” said Dr Zahid al Mandhari, Senior Consultant, Radiation Oncologist at SQCCCRC.
“Their family members are also at risk, for example, of developing colon cancer. So we take good care of these particular families. We have a unique opportunity to prevent cancer completely,” explained Dr Al Mandhari.
“We perform colonoscopy procedures and follow up with the patients when we detect and identify these cancers early. One can prevent them from happening,” noted Dr Al Mandhari.
The centre also has a one stop shop for breast cancer. “If there are any suspicious lumps, they can come here to get a mammogram, examination, biopsy, initial pathology report etc. They go knowing ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a single day,” said the radiation oncologist. They coordinate this service with the health centres in various governorates of Oman.
Breast cancer is the leading cancer amongst women followed by thyroid cancer and amongst men it is prostate cancer. The centre has been treating 4,000 to 5,000 patients each year. Treatment is available for both citizens as well as residents.
“We also do this for gynaecological malignancy also. They have similar procedures for patients who have suspicious lesions in the cervix. So when patients come to us, we go through the criteria and screen them to detect if it is cancer or not,” he noted.
Dr Al Mandhari said, "There is a referral portal that we have distributed to all the government and private hospitals. All they need to do is go through the portal and a referral is generated and received by our team. We give the appointment immediately.”
However, there is one condition. Cancer needs comprehensive treatment, so there is a need to look at a patient’s previous treatment. "Some patients are already going through good treatment at the other hospitals. So when we start with that individual we are again starting from the scratch and that could be unfair on other patients who are waiting to start their treatment while others have already begun their process," he said.
"So we try not to interfere with patients who already have an ongoing treatment. It takes two hours of evaluation for a new patient whereas for follow-up it is 15 to 30 minutes. So generally the centre does not accept patients who are on treatment elsewhere, but at the same time if they need specialised services the centre is ready to accept the patients," he added.
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