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Date: 22 May 2012
Time: 20:01
Radiotherapy patients
The Radiotherapy department treats patients of all ages, including children and adolescents.
We know that patients may be anxious or in discomfort, so the service takes due care for both the emotional and physical needs of those being treated.
The treatment of children requires separate waiting area facilities with a play area and a recovery room for those requiring a general anaesthetic.
Provision is also made for internally delivered radiation therapy in the form of implanted or inserted sealed sources and the administration of unsealed sources. Such treatments, e.g. radio-iodine therapy for thyroid cancer and radioactive seed implantation for prostate cancer, are carried out as inpatient treatments in an oncology specialty ward.
High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatment for gynaecological cancer is carried out as a day case procedure in the HDR suite.
Patients attend for treatment on a daily basis and a course of treatment can require up to 37 visits. However, certain categories of patients benefit from no unscheduled gap in their course of treatment. These patients are hyperfractionated * where possible or treated over a bank holiday period if necessary.
* Hyperfractionation means the total dose of radiation is divided into small “fraction” doses and treatments are given more than once a day.
