Cancer foundation offers helping hand to patients

Irawaty Wardany , The Jakarta Post , Denpasar | Wed, 02/20/2008 1:19 PM | Bali

"What is most needed by people suffering from cancer?" asked Wardhana, a volunteer at the Cancer Care Friendship Foundation, during a recent Saturday gathering.

Dozens of audience members raised their hands and one after the other expressed their opinions. One of them said cancer patients need financial assistance since cancer treatments are expensive. Some said patients need psychiatric assistance since cancer patients not only suffer from physical pain but also psychological anguish.

"I think cancer patients need assistance, because when I had cancer and was taken to the hospital, all I could think of were my children and my husband at home since during the treatments we were separated from each other, so we don't have anyone to share with," a breast cancer survivor, who asked that her name not be used, said.

The mother of two said the treatment period, especially the days right after a session of chemotherapy, was the hardest time for cancer patients.

"During this time we are very moody and all we can think of is the worst things that can happen," she said.

In her own case, she said this was aggravated by her fear and belief that cancer was incurable. "That was because we didn't have enough knowledge and information on the disease. We can easily find flyers about heart disease, diabetes and any other disease in hospitals, but flyers about cancer are rare," she said.

She praised the initiative of the foundation to gather together concerned individuals, including former cancer patients and people still living with cancer, to talk about the needs of cancer patients.

The gathering later decided to establish a community called Friends for Cancer Patients. The community is aimed at seeing to the needs of cancer patients.

Prior to the establishment of the community, Dr. Tjakra Wibawa Manuaba, a senior surgeon at Sanglah Central Hospital in Denpasar, gave a presentation about cancer.

He said cancer was a term used to define an uncontrolled development and multiplication of tissue in a certain part of the body.

"This can be caused by radiation, viruses and chemical substances that have damaged the body's cells especially the DNA in the cell's nucleus," he said.

He said the damage was mostly caused by unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking, eating junk food and food that contains dangerous preservatives and coloring materials.

"Roasted foods are also bad for the health since the charred parts of the food contain carbon," he said.

Grilling meat creates chemicals that have been linked with cancers.

Tjakra said cancer could also be caused by pollution, ultraviolet rays from the sun and stress.

He suggested people go in for regular medical check-ups, at least once a year, since cancer could take years to be detected.

"Data from Sanglah Hospital shows that 70 percent of the total cancer patients there sought treatment when their cancer was already in the third or fourth stage, which makes it more difficult to cure," he said.

He said that currently there was a new treatment for cancer called the cancer molecule target.

"This is an injection that aims to starve the cancer cells -- blocking the important protein inside the cancer cells so the cells can't get any food. Eventually, the cells will die," he said.

Unfortunately, Tjakra said, this treatment was expensive. "It costs Rp 20 million (US$2,188) for one shot," he said.

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