A R47 million linear accelerator has been unveiled at the Groote Schuur Hospital to increase the facility’s capacity to treat cancer patients. The equipment pinpoints radiotherapy to the exact location in the body where the cancer is detected.
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EWN reports that it is the first of only two machines of its kind in the Western Cape. Professor Jeanette Parkes, head of radiation oncology at Groote Schuur, says about 50% to 60% of around 33 000 patients per year require radiotherapy as part of their treatment plan. ‘We also do follow-ups of about 33,000 patients per year, but the new patients are the ones that we are formulating.’
The hospital also provides radiotherapy to private patients.
‘Because of its high energy, it means we can treat larger patients. Sometimes larger patients which are more prevalent in our setting than in places like Europe had not as elegant treatment. And by elegant I mean a type of treatment that will give them the least chance of side effects. At the end of the day what we are trying to do is to cure the patient with a good quality of life. So these machines allow us to better protect the tissues and treat cancer.’
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As per SABC News, the machine uses high-energy waves to destroy cancer cells. The most common cancer in females treated at the hospital includes breast and cervical cancer, while men most commonly undergo treatment for prostate, head and neck, or gastrointestinal cancer.
Dr Nomafrench Mbombo, Western Cape minister of health, says the delivery of the machine is an important milestone in cancer treatment. ‘It cannot be that just because we are in a third-world country, we must still be providing treatment for that kind. Because we are all first-world, our clinicians are sought-after across the world. So we wouldn’t want a situation where they were not having the tools of [the] trade and they end up going elsewhere because they are trained and they are specialists.’
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