THE first cancer survivorship care program in the Philippines is now in Cebu.
The Cancer Survivorship Center offering the program opened at Robinsons Cybergate Complex (near Chong Hua Hospital) recently.
The center is a comprehensive interdisciplinary program that meets the needs of cancer patients and their families. Cancer survivorship is a new field of oncology under the U.S. National Cancer Institue (NCI) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) in line with the Asco-Esmo (European Society for Medical Oncology) policy statement on providing quality multi-disciplinary cancer care.
The center is managed by a team of board-certified experts who offers psychological care, nutritional oncology, evidence-based complementary medicine, mind-body medicine and pastoral care, pain management and palliative care, cancer co-morbidity management, post-treatment oncology rehabilitation and cancer patient education services.
The team will teach clients what food to eat and to avoid during chemotherapy, how to scientifically combat weight loss and loss of appetite (how to prepare delicious liquid shakes for meal replacement/augmentation), which phytonutrient supplements are proven safe and effective, how to strengthen the immune system and reduce inflammation, understand how to manage chemotherapy/radiation side-effects, how to adequately manage pain, how to reduce anxiety and insomnia effectively, and how to psychologically and emotionally cope with cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The center, with contact number 5208870, provides all the clinical support services needed by cancer patients.
Heading the center is Dr. Omid Uy Etemadi. Etemadi is a graduate of the Cebu Institute of Medicine (CIM) and third placer in the Philippine Physician licensure examination given on February 2007.
He is a graduate fellow of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center and Dana Farber Cancer Institute Harvard Medical School Master Class for Oncologists Program, a full member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and a member of the American Society of Nutrition.