Radiation Therapy Treatment Services

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Radiation Therapy Cancer Services

The Patient’s Journey During Treatment


Step by Step Experience

(Click on the photograph to enlarge and read the captions)


Our friendly receptionist will greet you when you first arrive.
She will introduce you to a Senior Radiation Therapist who will ensure you receive information on your treatment and what will be required for your course of treatment.
There are social services available for patients to sort out personal problems regarding treatment.
The patient consults the Radiation Oncologist before and regularly during the course of radiation therapy. Radiation therapy has direct on-line access to the hospital’s patient data.
Before treatment begins, CT scans are taken of the patient. They are used to plan the correct arrangement of the X-ray beams for the treatment.
The radiation oncologist views the scans and decides the volume which occurs inside the patient and exposure to a prescribed X-ray dose. The doctor and radiation therapist view many slices of the patient’s internal anatomy and draws outlines to describe the treatment volume.
The critical structures that must not be exposed beyond a specified dose limit are also outlined. Prior to the patient receiving treatment, the radiation oncologist must present all the records and plan to a special staff peer review meeting.
The planning computer has accurate data of the patient’s anatomy to within millimetres. When the best plan method is achieved, the data is transferred electronically to the treatment linear accelerator.
The linear accelerator and treatment room may seem to be quite frightening for patients on their first day of treatment. The patient will be asked to lie down on the treatment couch. The couch is raised into position and the radiation therapist activates the set-up of the machine for treatment.
The medical physicist is expert in radiation dosimetry. The accuracy and validity of the planning and treatment equipment is regularly tested. The medical physicist is also a key contributor to developing new techniques for better radiation therapy.
The treatment plan set up is checked by one of the radiation therapists whilst another radiation therapist assures the patient on how the treatment will be arranged and what will be happening.
The machine treatment beam, angle and target position inside the patient are all accurate to within one millimetre tolerance. The red laser light shows the therapist where the beam will be directed..
Once the patient is manually set up and ready for treatment, the radiation therapy staff must leave the treatment room and view the patient via a TV monitor at the control console. Once the therapist activates the linear accelerator X-ray beam, the machine is under computer control, the treatment details are automatically recorded into a central database and all operating safety checks are performed by the electronics. The therapist continually views the patient during the length of the exposure.
Patients with head or neck cancers, require special face masks to immobilise the patients during the exposure. This can be very distressing and claustrophobic for the patient during the treatment of 15 -20 minutes duration.
Unfortunately, the mask must be used because the treatment volume is a complex 3-D shape that passes very close to the critical structures such as the spinal cord, parotid gland, eyes and optic chiasma. These critical structures are limited in how much dose they may receive.
Modern radiation therapy can achieve the complex treatment very accurately to within millimetres using a technique called ‘intensity modulated radiation therapy’ (IMRT). The collimator leaves that shape the beam and the machine angle move during the X-ray exposure with it all operating automatically under computer control.
The linear accelerator also has facilities to take an X-ray picture of the patient’s internal structures when the set-up ready for treatment. The radiation therapist consults the radiation oncologist to receive his/her approval to proceed. These images are compared against the original plan image to check the accuracy of set up.
Gold seed implanted for guiding prostate cancer treatment.
The doctor checks that the seeds are correctly implanted in the prostate by viewing the ultrasound image.
The X-ray beam treatment is designed to ‘kill’ the cancer cells (by altering their DNA) but normal cells may cause the patient some local tissue irritation. The radiation oncologist has regular check-up sessions with the patient to ensure that the treatment is going to plan and the patient does not have any concerns about their treatment.
Since most courses of treatments are over a period of 4 -6 weeks, the Nursing Unit Manager and her staff maintain daily contact with the patients to check how well the patients are coping.
Patients should feel free to keep in touch with the nursing staff as their first port of call for any medical requirements. Patient may also seek help from their radiation therapists in-charge of their treatment.
Skin cancers (BCC and SCC type) do not ordinarily require linear accelerator treatment. The department uses a low kilovoltage X-ray machine to treat just the superficial skin.
At the end of the day, our radiation therapy staff strive to have happy cured patients satisfied with the treatment services.
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