Aside from treating patients, the National University Cancel Institute. Singapore (NCIS) at the National University of Singapore will conduct research into cures, and strive to educate people on the need for early cancer screening, among other things.

By 2015, the number of new cancer patients is expected to hit 13,000 each year, because of the ageing population. In 2007, there were about 9,000 new patients.

Until two years ago, the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) was the only national facility dedicated to treating patients and researching cures, handling 70 per cent of the cancer population in Singapore. The NCIS will ease some of that load.

To be officially inaugurated today by Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, the centre started in 2008 as The Cancer Institute. It was formed by combining the radiotherapy and oncology centres at the National University Hospital.

At its multi-disciplinary tumour clinics, doctors of different specialities sit in on a single consultation with the patient, mapping cut his treatment so that he can start it faster.

The search goes on for better diagnoses and treatments. Speaking at a media briefing yesterday, Professor John Wong, director of NCIS, said: "Preventing the disease from occurring or at least diagnosing the condition at an early stage when successful treatment is more likely, is crucial in the fight against cancer."

A key research project undertaken by the institute has been a clinical trial on detecting gastric cancer at stage zero, when the cancer is only in the superficial layer of cells lining the stomach.

At this stage, patients do not exhibit any symptoms such as abdominal pain or vomiting. Associate Professor Yeoh Khay Guan has been screening subjects using endomicroscopy - a new technique involving a microscopic examination of the stomach lining during endoscopy.

Since he began the project three years ago, 2,700 people have been screened in the ongoing trial and 10 early gastric cancers have been found and treated.

Professor Phillip Koeffler, deputy director of research at NCIS, said: "These very early stage cancers are not associated with symptoms and are undetectable without screening; they would not have been diagnosed if not for this research."

Professor Adrian Leong, deputy director of NCIS, noted that less than 10 per cent of Singapore's population had colonoscopy screening, which helps to detect cases of colon and rectum cancer.

Compared with the United States, Singapore has fewer cases where the cancer is confined to the site of the original tumour, and has more advanced cancer cases.

Prof Wong pointed out that the dual combination of better treatment options for cancer and increased screening will reduce cancer mortality in Singapore.

He said: "We need to screen 70 per cent of the population at risk before we see the decline in mortality."