Radiotherapy training at Cape universities a boost for cancer treatment

RADIOLOGISTS and oncologists at UCT and CPUT will now have access to the latest radiotherapy technology to target cancer tumours more accurately.

The Access to Care Programme, a joint venture between the two universities and Varian Medical Systems, is expected to enable medics to deliver the correct dose of radiotherapy to cancer patients.

Through the technology, it will decrease side effects on patients and spare healthy tissue from damage. While South Africa was already using more advanced technology, many African countries were still using older 2D type treatment techniques.

The Access to Care course trains qualified medical professionals to work in a more advanced radiotherapy environment over a three week course, including practical sessions.

Trainees are given the opportunity to practice new skills on a computer-based linear accelerator simulator, similar to how pilots are trained on a flight simulator.

Hester Burger, who heads the programme at UCT, said the course was designed to focus on the “teaching by trying” approach, rather than textbook-based learning.

“By allowing the training to be done in this virtual environment, there is no risk of damage to costly equipment such as the actual linear accelerators. There is also no radiation involved during the training, making it a very safe training environment.

“The facility also has a full computer laboratory to allow trainees time to practice complex planning techniques without taking up time on the treatment planning computers in the departments.”

By having direct access to a team of experienced trainers, covering all of the specialities, the trainees got a feeling for the real world scenarios they would face in a cancer treatment environment, said Burger.

Both UCT, which trains radiation oncologists as well as medical physicists, and CPUT which trains radiation therapy technologists, would be involved in the programme development as well as the training.