Super anticancer technologies
Efficient treatment of malign tumors, reduced to minimum therapy time, increased protection of healthy tissue. These are, in short, the performances of the new devices that can be accessed today by the patients of Acibadem clinics. These are available in the newest Acibadem hospital, Altunizade, since March 2017. Prof. Dr. Meriç Şengöz, radiotherapy specialist at the newest Acibadem hospital, Altunizade, shared some details on how the most performant radiotherapy devices function and what are the reasons why patients need to complete any therapy they started.
What are the benefits of radiotherapy applied with the latest technologies?
Prof. Dr. Meriç Şengöz: Currently, in the field of radiotherapy, we work with new technologies that have progressed a lot during the last 10 years. New devices appear annually, and with their help we obtain increasingly better results in treating cancer patients, improving the life expectancy rate and the quality of life. On the long term, applying new therapy methods can control the tumors evolution and can reduce the side effects of classic radiotherapy. Latest technologies at the Altunizade Acibadem Hospital
What is new regarding the equipment of radiotherapy services in the new Acibadem hospital, Altunizade?
Prof. Dr. Meriç Şengöz: In the Acibadem clinics, technology is constantly improving. We already work with Truebeam STX, high precision linear accelerators, offering patients high quality treatments. But we also have cutting edge technology, such as the TomoTherapy device, combining tomography with linear accelerator. With the help of the TomoTherapy device, we can have two procedures in one session: we actually scan the entire body and apply the radiations emission on several areas at once. Also, we can treat in one therapy session a big area affected by cancer, as it happens in the case of some patients with brain or spine cancers. This is a huge step in approaching more complicated cases, which needed more therapy sessions, involving certain risks for delicate areas such as the spine. At Acibadem, one of the top technologies is GammaKnife, that we have successfully applied in many cases. But now we have the new device, Gammaknife ICON, that will be available in the new Altunizade hospital. With an increased accuracy, with the new radiosurgery device not only can we apply radiotherapy in one session, but we can treat step by step, in segments, larger areas that need large radiations doses. Within radio-surgical procedures with GammaKnife Icon, using CT technology, we scan the patient’s body and then we apply radiotherapy, in one or more segments, depending on the case.
