DLSU MEDICAL CENTER TO HOUSE THE FIRST RADIOTHERAPY TREATMENT IN CAVITE

Cancer is one of the leading causes of illness and death across the globe. Approximately 70 percent of deaths from cancer occur in low and middle-income countries due to inaccessibility to diagnostic and treatment services according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report. While most tumors are still removed surgically, the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach to cancer management could not be more emphasized at the present time.

Radiation therapy is utilized in about half and up to two-thirds of patients at a certain point in their cancer treatment. It is either a cure for or palliation of symptoms for better quality of life. It is a well-planned delivery of high dose radiation which is lethal to malignant cells while sparing normal, healthy tissues. However, no treatment has no side effects and is mainly dependent on the site being treated.

Mouth sores during head and neck radiotherapy are common but can be resolved over time upon completion of treatment. On the other hand, dry mouth syndrome, a potentially lifelong complication, can be easily prevented through the use of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) technique. This is wherein the radiation dose is strictly confined on tumor volumes and not so much on critical organs or structures. Another innovation is the image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) or image-guided adaptive radiation therapy (IGART). It has an onboard a cone-beam CT for target localization just before treatment delivery ensuring precise tumor coverage.

De La Salle University Medical Center (DLSUMC) will soon house again the first and only radiation treatment facility in Cavite from its former Cobalt-60 machine to a new modern IMRT-capable linear accelerator (LINAC) machine.