Medical Oncology
What is Medical Oncology?
Medical Oncology is a modality of treatment in cancer care which uses Chemotherapy, Immunotherapy, Hormonal Therapy and Targeted Therapy to treat cancer in an effective manner. Medical Oncology is usually works in conjunction with Surgical Oncology or Radiation Oncology to give the best clinical outcomes.
OncoVille’s medical oncology super speciality team works towards preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer by offering the highest levels of treatment protocols and customised multi-modality therapies. In addition to Chemotherapy, the department also runs protocols and specialises in out-patient and ambulatory chemotherapy. Our medical oncology service includes treatments for solid tumours, specialized outpatient chemotherapy with chemoports and hematological neoplasm in adults and children.
Frequently asked questions
3D conformal radiation therapy is a type of radiation therapy for cancer treatment that shapes the radiation beams to match the tumour.
In the past, when there was minimal technological advancement, the radiation beam was in fixed geometrical shapes and both the cancerous and normal tissue used to get the same radiation. With the rise of technology, we can safely target the cancerous regions and avoid normal organs.
This exact targeting allows us to use higher levels of radiation in treatment. More radiation is more effective in shrinking and killing tumours.
IMRT is an advanced form of 3DCRT. It is of particular value for tumours with concave or complex shapes with proximity to normal structures. IMRT uses advanced technology to manipulate radiation beams to conform to the shape of a tumour.
Each beam is subdivided into hundreds of beam lets, each with an individual intensity level, enabling a very complicated pattern. The use of several beams can build up a highly conformal dose distribution, allowing precise shaping and thus further sparing of the normal tissues.
Advantages of IMRT
• Improved target conformity, particularly for concave tumours
• Can produce dose-painting
• Increases normal tissue sparing – less toxic both immediate and long term
• Enables increase in dose safely – Thus better cure rates.
When we are delivering radiation every day to the tumour, which is very near critical structures, possibility is that we may miss the tumour and deliver high doses to the normal structures. This can be avoided by using daily imaging before delivery of radiation. This process is Image-Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT).
The definition of IGRT is "Frequent imaging in the treatment room during a course of radiotherapy to guide the treatment process"
IGRT is delivered using a linear accelerator. At Cancer Therapy, we are equipped with the state of the art linear accelerator, TruBeamStx. This machine is equipped with special imaging technology (Cone beam CT scan) that allow us to image the tumour just before or even during the time radiation is delivered, while the patient is positioned on the treatment table. Using the specialized computer software compares these images with reference images taken at the time of simulation. Any necessary adjustments are done to the patient's position and/or radiation beams and hence safely deliver the treatment. This procedure is done every day before treatment.
IGRT is often used in conjunction with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), Volumetric arc therapy (VMAT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), which are advanced modes of high-precision radiotherapy.
The main advantage of IGRT
• It is very precise in delivery.
• It does makes it possible to use higher doses of radiation to kill the cancer
• Avoid harm to healthy tissue
• To keep side effects to a minimum
TBI is a special type of radiation technique. TBI is radiation therapy that's given to the entire body. This type of radiation is a priming technique before bone marrow transplantation. TBI may be given for the following reasons:
• To kill cancer cells in areas where chemotherapy can't easily reach (such as nervous system, bones, skin, or testes).
• Provide sufficient immunosuppression in the recipient to prevent rejection of the graft
• Create space in the bone-marrow for the donor cells
• Thus help in the better success of the transplant
The treatment could be one fraction or a maximum of 8 fractions given twice a day over four days. The number of sittings depends on the disease conditions. We at Cancer Therapy are one of the few centres who specialize in this technique.