Fucoidan is a natural polysaccharide found in brown seaweed (such as kelp, wakame, and giant kelp), rich in fucose and sulfate groups, with proven antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. Over the past two decades, researchers have discovered that fucoidan can induce cancer cell apoptosis, activate natural killer (NK) cells, and inhibit tumor angiogenesis, thereby suppressing tumor growth.
Radiotherapy is a cornerstone of modern cancer treatment. It precisely kills cancer cells and inhibits tumor growth, often used alongside chemotherapy and surgery. However, while destroying cancer cells, radiation inevitably damages surrounding healthy tissue, leading to side effects such as radiation pneumonitis, enteritis, liver fibrosis, skin damage, and severe fatigue.
Colorectal cancer is one of the most common cancers in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. Because early symptoms are often subtle, many patients are diagnosed only at stage III or IV. Besides surgery, chemotherapy and targeted therapies are the main treatment options. However, for some patients with metastatic disease, even with advancing regimens, the five-year survival rate remains far from ideal.
This has led many patients and their families to wonder: Is there a safe, natural adjuvant that can enhance treatment efficacy, reduce side effects, and improve quality of life?
In recent years, oligo-fucoidan has gradually gained recognition worldwide in the medical community. It is a natural polysaccharide extracted from brown seaweed (such as kelp, wakame, and giant kelp), with proven antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory effects. A Taiwanese research team successfully reduced its molecular weight to approximately 500 Daltons, making it far more bioavailable and enabling it to exert physiological activity at the cellular level.
For cancer patients in Hong Kong, conventional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapies may help slow disease progression, but they often come with severe side effects—hair loss, nausea, extreme fatigue, weakened immunity, and difficulty maintaining normal social and daily activities. For many patients, the deepest desire is not only “how much longer can I live,” but “how can I live with dignity.”
For many cancer patients in Hong Kong, conventional approaches such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted medications may help slow disease progression, but they often bring significant side effects—hair loss, nausea, profound fatigue, reduced immune resilience, and difficulty maintaining normal social and daily activities. For many individuals, the deepest wish is not only “how much longer can I live,” but “how can I continue living with dignity.”
Conclusion First If you or a loved one is facing colorectal cancer, CTC testing is not a magic bullet, but it has real, actionable clinical value in four key areas:
• Risk stratification
• Treatment response monitoring
• Early warning of recurrence
• Supporting immunotherapy decisions
It works best after diagnosis, around surgery, and during systemic therapy (chemo/targeted/immunotherapy). It does not replace colonoscopy, imaging, or CEA, but it often gives an earlier, more dynamic signal. In oncology, that earlier signal can be the difference between months or years of survival. (SEER; American Cancer Society)
Colorectal cancer 5-year relative survival is heavily stage-dependent: overall ~65%, but drops to ~14% once distant metastases appear (stage IV). From a patient’s view, the message is brutally simple: catch it early and keep watching aggressively. CTCs are one of the best tools we have for the “keep watching” part.
Cancer treatment has changed beyond recognition in the past few decades. Chemotherapy was once the only weapon, but it attacked healthy cells as fiercely as cancer cells. Targeted therapy improved precision, yet only a minority of patients have the “right” mutations.
Breast cancer has been the number-one cancer among women in Hong Kong for many years, with thousands of new cases diagnosed annually. Whether undergoing surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapy, or hormone therapy, every patient shares the same burning questions:
“Is my treatment actually working?”
“Will my cancer come back or spread?”
Traditional monitoring tools — imaging scans (CT, PET-CT, bone scans) and serum markers (CEA, CA15-3) — are familiar to every patient, but in the era of precision medicine they often feel too slow, too vague, or simply too late.
Clinical Evidence and Real-World Insights for Patients
In an era of rapid medical progress, the way we detect and treat cancer is evolving dramatically. For liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, HCC) patients, early detection and accurate disease monitoring can literally be the difference between life and death. Traditional tools such as ultrasound, AFP levels, and contrast-enhanced imaging, while widely used, have clear limitations. This is why scientists have been racing to develop the next generation of blood-based tests — and circulating tumor cells (CTCs), a cornerstone of liquid biopsy, are quietly revolutionizing how we understand and manage liver cancer.
