Interview with Dr Felicia Chin
Gynecologic Cancer Group Singapore
We had the honor of speaking with Dr. Felicia Chin from Gynecologic Cancer Group Singapore about gynecolgogical cancer advocacy on an Instagram Live recently. Dr. Chin is a gyn oncologist at KK Women's and Children’s Hospital, is an active participant in World Gynecologic Oncology Day, and also works with the Himalayan Women’s Health Project. Thank you, Dr. Felicia!
Read an excerpt of the informal interview below (edited for length) or watch the whole discussion on our Instagram Reels!
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Dr Felicia Chin
Okay, so, I am a gyne oncologist in Singapore. I work at KK Women's and Children's Hospital. And I also am a board member of the GCGS, which is the Gynecologic Cancer Group Singapore. It's a nonprofit organization founded in 2017 where like-minded doctors, nurses, basically people who want to make a difference to gynae cancer care in Singapore. So the group takes part in international trials. We also run sessions, you know, roundtable discussions, medical seminars and stuff like that, for us to interact and to find out better ways to improve cancer care for our patients. It's also a way for us to keep abreast with developments in the field, it's also good.
GCGS is also a platform for patient advocacy, and that's how we got involved with World Gynecologic Oncology Day. We started a couple of years ago, and that first year where we started, we thought it was a good idea to have a walk in the park, you know. So we gathered all all our doctors, our nurses, as well as our patients. But, you know, being in Singapore, where the tropical weather is a little bit erratic, it rained out on us, so I'm not I'm sure you've seen photos and videos. We were in our ponchos walking in the rain! But it was quite an experience, and we we really enjoyed it.
And last year was quite interesting, because we thought, you know, let's, let's get something that's a little bit more wet-weather friendly. So we decided to clean up the waterways of Singapore. You could either have, an on-foot option, or you could have kayaking, or you could be pedal boating. And our theme last year was “trash cancer.”
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
That's so great. Nice.
Dr Felicia Chin
It was really warm though!
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
Yes, I can imagine you guys got a good workout in the heat doing that! So Felicia, what are some of the most pressing concerns for gynecological cancer patients in Singapore right now?
Dr Felicia Chin
I mean, I think we do have a good a good support system for our patients, and I think access to care is not a problem for most of our population, but I think there is work to be done in terms of educating the public, as well as raising awareness for gynae cancer, especially the ones that are preventable, such as survival right and then, given the fact that I think a lot of our patients do pretty well even after the cancer treatment, there is also work to be done in the space of survivorship.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
Right? Because after the cancer is treated, the patients still require support, and there are still some stigmas that remain. I'm asking about stigma because the campaign for World Gynecologic Oncology this year, our theme is about stigma and trying to lift the burden of stigma for gyn cancer patients around the world, not only to help them get more access to care and remove some of the barriers to asking questions about their concerns. Have you done some work on that already?
Dr Felicia Chin
When I heard the theme for this year, I was really, really glad, because I think stigma is a large part that we in Singapore, Unfortunately, in our society, in our culture, there is still a fair amount of stigma surrounding the diagnosis of a cancer, and I think that is even more pronounced in a gynecological cancer. Culturally, the reproductive organs are pretty private to our patients, yes. And so, I mean, cancer diagnosis itself is not easy to stomach. And cancer of your gyne organs? Yeah? So it's hard, I think it's hard for our patients, whether young or old, to actually discuss this. It’s just an awkward, difficult conversation to have.
And so there's a lot more work that we can do in terms of, you know, just having support groups, having platforms, having an opportunity for patients to come together and just talk to other survivors or care providers.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
Can you tell us a little bit about what you're planning this year for World Gynecologic Oncology Day on September 20?
Dr Felicia Chin
We’re really excited becausewe do have an event every year. This year, we're planning something in the month of September, on the 29th of September.
Given our past two years experience of you know, weather issues like the downpour or, like the very sunny hot weather, this year we're going to take it indoors. In recent years, there's quite a bit of focus on mental health and also survivorship. So we're bringing in experts who can come and talk to us about mental wellness, we can talk about cancer rehab, and along with that, we're gonna have a small session with some Qigong masters on breath work and meditation, also in a small segment of art therapy.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
What advice would you give to a group that wants to start their own awareness activities?
Dr Felicia Chin
Just go ahead and get started. I feel a lot of times we think about planning, doing a project. And we're literally waiting for the stars to align, you know, like, oh, we need to have the right day. We need to have the right people involved. Or, you know, do we have funding and etcetera, etcetera. But the truth is, if you don't get started, it will not happen, right? Let's just get started, and things will fall into place.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
That's great. Thank you for that advice.
What do you think are some of the stigmas that Singaporean cancer patients face?
Dr Felicia Chin
I think just the fact that, like I mentioned earlier, just the fact that you're diagnosed with a cancer, that can be quite isolating, sure, because, I mean, a lot of times people grapple with the diagnosis, and it's not an easy conversation to have, even with you know, your closest, dearest ones. And sometimes going through treatment is isolating in the sense that, you know, it's hard for someone who hasn't been there or walked in those shoes to actually, really, truly understand what you're going through. So I think, I think that's that's really one of the things that our cancer patients face, but we are building a good support network often that says caregivers, and educating caregivers on what to look out for and counselors to work with these patients.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
So that's support network is, is really the sort of the basis of combating the stigma in your region?
Dr Felicia Chin
I think that. And also, of course, raising awareness and having conversations like like this one, you know, the more you talk about it, the less people are awkward or embarrassed about the topic.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
Starting the the conversation is quite hard, right? For people who go their whole life without having to think about a cancer diagnosis, and then one day they have to start. But where do you start this conversation if you've never had to before?
Dr Felicia Chin
So I think a lot of times the initial, the first point of call is probably the care provider, the healthcare provider, the nurse. Or the doctors that you come come across, and it's important for these healthcare providers to then know the possible resources that can help support the patient.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
What do you say to your patients who are encountering stigma in their daily lives?
Dr Felicia Chin
Well, the first thing is, patients don't really tell you about facing stigma. I don't think they will tell you about stigma, but through your conversations and your encounters with them, and learning about the social support and what exactly or how they how they view that treatment, or what they're agreeable to and not, or how much of this diagnosis they're trying to keep from the people around them, you then get an inkling of of what exactly is going through their minds, right?
So, so I think I do have these conversations with them, and I do tell them that, you know there are many other people who have had this cancer, who have survived it okay. And there are support networks that you can fall back on. And of course, I think it's important to realize that the diagnosis of cancer does not replace your identity, right? I mean, you're still that same person. It's just that now you've, you've been thrown this new hurdle in in your life, and we can cross it together.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
Let’s talk a little bit more about the Himalayan Women's Health Project in Ladakh. Can you tell me how you got involved with that and what you do?
Dr Felicia Chin
I got involved with it a long time ago through a gynecologist named Dr. Quek Swee Chong who is a leading colposcopist in Singapore. He started this project in 2009 and I joined it in 2015. He leads a team of doctors, nurses, even non medical personnel as well, up to the Himalayas, into Ladakh, and we provide cervical cancer screening using visual inspection with acetic acid, with our head lamps, and then we also have colposcopy, and we also perform treatment. So we've taken a break since, since COVID struck. Soon, here we're going back up again. So that's really exciting.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
There must be a big difference between the patient education that you do there versus in your daily practice. So it must be really interesting.
Dr Felicia Chin
I think the culture there is totally different. The access that they have to healthcare is also different. So we literally see patients who travel across valleys. When they hear about this healthcare coming, they travel across valleys. They take days to weeks to travel across valleys with their families, just to just come.
Given that cervical cancer is probably the most preventable of all gyne cancers, I think there is, there is a lot of work that should and needs to be done in this space.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
And in Singapore as well, right? You are working on cervical cancer elimination in Singapore.
Dr Felicia Chin
We are working on it. I think a lot of it is also about raising awareness and the importance and the preventability of cervical cancer. I think a lot of people still don't know that it's mostly preventable.
I am working with the Society of colposcopy in Singapore to raise awareness, to come up with patient education forums and education within the medical community to raise education in terms of HPV vaccination, cervical cancer screening. These are important things to do in terms of eliminating cervical cancer in Singapore.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
What is the situation with vaccination in the Singapore for cervical cancer, HPV vaccination?
Dr Felicia Chin
Girls are vaccinating at the age of 13, they offered vaccination as an opt in program. Vaccination is also quite widely available in all our clinics and hospitals across Singapore.
I think we're I think we're getting better in terms of patient education and public awareness. I think we are getting better, but there's still work to do.
World Gynecologic Oncology Day
There’s always work to do! Thanks again, so much for your time, and I really appreciate the work that you're doing for gyne cancer patients.
Dr Felicia Chin
Thanks, Beth, thanks for having me. It's really a team effort, and I'm really grateful for the invite to be here, and also, even more grateful to the team behind me who has worked with me, all the nurses, the doctors. Thank you to Dr. Joe Ng, especially, he was the one who hooked us up. So I think thank you to the GCGS for the support as well, um, the nurses, the doctors that I work with at my hospital. It's been awesome.