Treatment boost for oncology unit

Cancer patients needing radiotherapy treatment can now receive the treatment much more quickly and efficiently following the introduction of new sophisticated equipment at Groote Schuur Hospital's oncology unit.

The R50 million Linac bunker and a CT simulator, which were officially opened by Health MEC, Nomafrench Mbombo, will be used to deliver radio-surgery for a variety of malignant and benign conditions. This is a sophisticated treatment technique, allowing accurate dose delivery to the tumour or tumour bed, while allowing sparing of the surrounding normal tissue.

This allows excellent tumour control rates while limiting the side effects of radiotherapy. Groote Schuur Hospital, which currently has 36 000 follow up patients in its oncology department, sees 3 000 new oncology patients every year. About 1 500 require radiotherapy either as curative or as palliative treatment for cancer.

Mbombo said the new Linac machine will bring waiting times down to below four weeks, from the current 4-6 weeks - in line with international standards. The Linac will be the third radiotherapy treatment machine in the radiation oncology department. Between 30 to 40 patients were set to benefit from a daily treatment of about six weeks. There is also a new CT simulator which is a radiotherapy imaging device used in radiotherapy planning. This machine will replace the ageing CT machine in the radiotherapy department.

The machine was specifically chosen as it is able to accommodate patients of almost all weights and sizes, in every position required for sophisticated radiotherapy techniques. The software allows for a variety of planning possibilities, and aids in the accurate planning and delivery of radiotherapy.

Cape Argus, 17 August 2016