“Positive thinking, not putting too much pressure on yourself and always believing that you are in fact cancer free, living a happy life as you normally do, that is the key to being cured of cancer.” This is how Tin May Lwin, a former university lecturer from Myanmar, chose to approach her treatment for breast cancer at the Horizon Cancer Center: with a heart full of joy.

Accurately and timely diagnosis from the very beginning is the most crucial factor in a patient’s treatment plan. A slow, incomplete, or imprecise diagnosis can end up costing valuable time, and ultimately complicate the treatment. This is why Dr. Kamoltham Pulpinyo, a breast interventional radiologist at Bumrungrad International Hospital, has turned fast and accurate diagnosis into something of a specialty for the sake of her patients.

Diagnoses of colorectal cancer for under-50s have increased two-fold in the past three decades, leading to the current recommendation of starting colorectal cancer screening as young as 45. Besides the tried and tested screening method that is the colonoscopy, you can go a step further with preventive medicine and get genetic screening to learn about your genetic risk factors in advance.

For many of us, bladder cancer might not sound as familiar as breast or lung cancer. Yet, it is relatively widespread. Statistics by the World Health Organization in 2018 show that cancer of the bladder is the 10th most common form of cancer globally. It is the 12th most deadly form of cancer. There is also a concerning trend that those likely to be visited by bladder cancer are getting younger and younger. Whereas it previously tended to affect those aged between 60 and 70 years, it is now a risk for those under 40 as well.

“The closer we can get the radioactive source to the cancer, the better the chances of a full recovery. There are virtually no side effects; the patient gets to live a normal life again.” Dr. Apichart Panichevaluk, senior radiation oncologist at the Horizon Regional Cancer Center, summarizes the benefits of brachytherapy for patients who must undergo radiation therapy.

“Prostate and kidney cancer are the two most common forms of cancer in the urinary tract. To date, the surgical procedures opted for treatment tend to leave both physical and mental scars in the aftermath. But with robotic surgery, patients no longer have to bear any significant kind of scarring and can go straight back to living their normal lives. Our goal is to see the patients smile and go about their normal lives after surgery, even if that just means being able to go to the toilet without any problems or having a healthy sex life; we would call that a big success.” This is the recommendation of Dr. Teerapon Amornvesukit, an expert on minimal invasive surgery (MIS) on the urinary tract with over 20 years’ experience.