To cope with the huge demand of cancer patients waiting for radiotherapy treatment at Groote Schuur Hospital, the hospital unveiled a new Linac machine in the radiation cncology department on Tuesday August 16.
This is the third radiotherapy treatment machine in the department. On average, each patient receiving curative radiotherapy will require daily week-day treatments for a period of six weeks.
Between 30 and 40 patients are treated daily on each machine.
In addition to conventional radiotherapy, this machine can also be used to deliver radiosurgery 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 good tumour control rates while limiting the side effects of radiotherapy.
The oncology department is also introducing a new CT simulator, a radiotherapy imaging device used in radiotherapy planning. This machine will replace the aging CT machine in the radiotherapy department. At the unveling, physician Hester Burger enaged in talks around the Linac with Western Cape Health MEC Nomafrench Mbombo and paediatric radiotherapy specialist Professor Jeanette Parkes.
