Radiotherapy is the third pillar in the fight against cancer alongside surgery and systemic therapy. It can be used effectively in both curative and palliative settings.
In everyday clinical practice in radiation oncology, cases in which a cure is the goal clearly predominate: e.g. in the vast majority of breast, bowel and prostate cancers, which, thanks to improved screening, can now generally be detected early and treated accordingly before tumour cells spread to other parts of the body (technical term: metastasis).
But even if metastasis is present, radio-oncological treatment can help patients in a variety of ways - be it through the targeted irradiation (stereotaxy) of brain metastases, through the haemostatic effect in the case of tumour bleeding or through the pain-reducing effect in the case of painful bone metastases, for example.
In addition to radiotherapy for cancer, radiotherapy for benign changes and chronic inflammation is also part of the repertoire of radiotherapy; this can provide significant relief for persistent joint pain (hand, elbow, knee, foot, ...), for example.
Regardless of the treatment objective, each radiotherapy treatment is carried out according to an individually customised radiotherapy plan, which is implemented quickly and in a targeted manner using state-of-the-art radiotherapy equipment.
The irradiation itself takes just a few minutes and is neither visible nor perceptible.
Around 60% of all patients with malignant tumours are treated with radiotherapy. The use of state-of-the-art radiotherapy methods significantly improves cancer patients' chances of recovery and reduces the risk of side effects. In the palliative situation, a good reduction in pain (up to 80%) is achieved with few side effects. The demands on the safety and precision of radiotherapy have increased due to millimetre-precise irradiation with high radiation doses and require good quality management. The radiation oncology department at the Claraspital not only has two linear accelerators of the latest generation, but also a computer tomograph specially developed for the planning and simulation of radiotherapy. A surface scanner replaces the skin markings previously used. This is more comfortable and more precise, as 20,000 points on the body surface can be measured and movements can be recorded.
State-of-the-art radiotherapy method increases chances of cure in cancer therapy
The linear accelerator in the radiooncology department of the Claraspital brings a number of technical innovations, all of which enable improved cancer treatment: The high precision and modern imaging of the new device make it possible to visualise and completely destroy even small tumours directly before radiotherapy. With these ablative radiotherapy concepts, individual cancerous tumours in the brain, bones, lungs or liver can be completely destroyed with a few intensive radiotherapy sessions that are precise to the millimetre.
These high-precision radiotherapy treatments are very well tolerated and can even replace surgery. In addition, thanks to state-of-the-art technology and current study results, radiotherapy for breast and prostate cancer can be shortened by several weeks. New radiotherapy methods using the breath-hold technique significantly reduce the risk of side effects in breast cancer radiotherapy on the heart and the use of new surface scanners means that the unpopular skin markings with felt-tip pens are often no longer necessary.
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