Some recent newspaper reports have touched on compassion shown to cancer patients. In one report, a judge cut down the jail time of a criminal with late-stage cancer.

Most people recognise that life becomes more valuable when someone, like a terminally ill patient, has little time left.

However, I feel that cancer patients also need a practical, everyday sort of compassion, not just when they are dying but when they are very much alive and are able to work.

They need an equal shot at a good job. Unfortunately, many face hurdles at interviews. Let me recount a conversation I had with a cancer patient during the Asian financial crisis.

'Will any doctor be able to tell that I've had cancer during a routine medical examination?' he asked.

'Probably not, unless he is very astute. Why?' I asked in return.

'I've applied for more than a dozen jobs and when I tell them I have had cancer, the companies say they'll call but they never do. I lied in my last interview that I have no past medical problems and I've been offered a job, pending medical clearance,' he said quietly.

Time and again, patients of mine have related similar employment woes. Few companies would hire cancer survivors.

After all, there are so many qualified healthy applicants in the job market. Why should employers take the risk of hiring one with a history of cancer?

I followed with interest the Yellow Ribbon campaign to give ex-prisoners a second chance. I can understand the need for such efforts to educate the public not to bear prejudices against ex-offenders. They have paid for their crimes and deserve a second chance.

I strongly feel it is time, too, to launch a campaign to help cancer survivors find and hold jobs. As we cure more and more people with cancer, the number of survivors in our community will continue to grow.

The recent local television documentary Journey Of Hope featured many cancer patients who continued working despite being on treatment. One works in a bank. Another runs a restaurant.

The eight-part series, besides educating the public on the advances of cancer management, also debunks the common myth that cancer patients are miserable and weak.

Most cancer patients, once in remission, are able to do a full day's work. In fact, there are cancer patients battling the disease who are still working and who need minimal time off for the occasional visit to the doctor.

My colleagues and I have patients, ranging from those in senior management positions to manual workers, who continue to work. Some do it out of necessity to put food on the table. Others find that work helps to keep them occupied and gives meaning to their lives.

Let's put this issue in the context of cancer survival figures. I estimate that we are curing more than 50 per cent of patients with colon and breast cancer, the most common cancer in men and women respectively.

With 1,400 new colorectal and 1,300 new breast cancer patients diagnosed each year, we are adding some 1,350 cancer survivors to the population each year. When you add in all the other cancers, the number is certainly much higher.

As we strengthen the three pillars in our strategy against cancer - prevention, early detection and treatment - we expect to see improvement in the cure rates. So, we need to address the reasons for the prejudices urgently.

'You think I want to have cancer?' a patient, with tears in her eyes, told me how she stomped out during an employment interview.

What can an employer do?

The first thing is to determine whether the cancer survivor can do a full day's work. Two, or at most three, months after the completion of treatment, most patients should be able to get back to normal duties.

Cancer survivors who are holding jobs should not take advantage of their illness to shirk their duties. To be honest, some do take advantage of their past illness to get medical certificates from their doctors, much to the unhappiness of colleagues and their bosses.

There is also the issue of medical benefits. Employers who hire cancer patients will have concerns about the 'loading' by insurance companies.

Premiums usually increase to allow coverage for cancer. They can even be increased significantly because of the history of cancer.

Another issue that needs to be looked at is cancer patients' fear of changing jobs.

Often, they are locked into their company insurance that helps them with part of their medical bills. If they change jobs, the new company may have difficulty providing medical insurance.

Portability of medical insurance is thus important to allow cancer patients the option of a career change.

All these are easy steps towards greater compassion. It only remains for us to take these steps, one at a time.

Dr Ang Peng Tiam
angpt@parkwaycancercentre.com

Dr Ang, the medical director of Parkway Cancer Centre, has been treating cancer patients for nearly 20 years. In 1996, he was awarded Singapore's National Science Award for his outstanding contributions to medical research.

This story was first published in Mind Your Body, The Straits Times, on Nov 20, 2008.

For more The Straits Times stories, click here.