New radiation oncology centre ‘second to none’ at Glandore
Backlit scenery panels, iPod docking stations and an atrium flooded with light are all positives for patients who will attend Munster’s new state-of-the-art radiation oncology centre, but it’s the treatments rather than the aesthetics that will become the ultimate talking point.
The Glandore Centre will be the first and only public hospital in the State to offer Surface Guided Radiation Treatment (SGRT). This speeds up and improves the accuracy of treatment and reduces the need for the patient to lie absolutely still.
It will also mean patients who require head and neck or brain radiation can wear an open face mask, rather than the enclosed, intimidating-looking masks they currently have to wear.
Radiation Therapy Services manager Claire Roe explains that three cameras mounted on the ceiling beam an infra red light onto the patient’s skin and monitor their movement “with incredible accuracy”. Even the slightest movement is picked up. The delivery of treatment can then be adjusted to account for that movement. SGRT will allow patients to be treated without need of tattoos. These cancer “tattoos” are tiny pin -point permanent skin markings that help ensure external radiotherapy treatment is accurate.
At yesterday’s launch of the new centre, two former breast cancer patients, Linda O’Flaherty and Elaine Tierney, show me their tattoos and express their delight at the promise the new centre offers. What’s really reassuring for newly- diagnosed patients, they say, is that it will give equity of access to the newest and best therapies, in line with best international practice, and using the best equipment.
Its collaboration with renowned cancer hospital The Christie, in Manchester, is the icing on the cake, because it is the location for more than 650 clinical trials and its tremendous track record in research and clinical care will make a major resource available to staff and patients at The Glandore.
Nick Slevin, professor of radiation oncology at The Christie, attended yesterday’s opening and spoke of the possibility of cancer patients in Cork boarding aeroplanes in Cork Airport to fly to Manchester to take part in clinical trials.
“I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of this centre to patients in Ireland,” he said. “It’s a fantastic environment.”
Neither should the importance of fundraising be underestimated. It’s the hard work of Cork charity, Aid Cancer Treatment (ACT) that will fund the €800,000 cost of SGRT. The standalone centre, built at a cost of €40m, will make CUH home to the most comprehensive range of cancer treatment services in the country once it becomes operational later this year.
Claire Roe says The Glandore will allow for the delivery of an enhanced form of what’s called Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), currently available in limited numbers in the existing facility. This more sophisticated treatment is known as Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) and it will do in two-and-a-half minutes what IMRT currently takes 12 minutes to do. This is good news for the patient.
Claire says the new facility will also allow them to offer Deep Inspirational Breath-Hold therapy to all breast cancer patients who require it, while at the moment it’s available in a limited capacity, requiring some patients to travel to other cancer centres such as Dublin, for treatment. This therapy involves matching radiation treatment to the patient’s breathing and is used in patients with left-sided breast cancer, to move the treatment away from the heart.
Stereotactic radiotherapy, a more complex treatment, will also eventually be available at The Glandore, but that will require further commissioning and training. A number of linear accelerators, used for external beam radiation therapy, will also require commissioning.
While the new facility will increase the number available at the hospital from two to five, in order to maintain the current service, they will go live on a phased basis. The initial two are expected to go live around October this year. By the end of next year, five should be in use. Provision has been made to eventually raise the number of LINAC’s to seven, with two extra bunkers built in.
The centre will treat approximately 2,000 patients per annum, with built-in expansion space to cater for demographic change. The majority of patients will be walk-in (ambulatory). One of the first things they will see when they enter The Glandore is glorious interior planting, stretching up into a raised roof.
Around this atrium are rooms for different allied health professionals such as speech and language therapists. A separate corridor leads to the LINAC machines. Theo Cullinane, chief executive of developers BAM, says the walls around these machines are comprised of 2.5m of high density concrete.
On the first floor, Ms Roe shows us the brachytherapy suite, where radioactive seeds are inserted directly into the tissue in the treatment of prostate cancer. Gynaecological cancer is also treated on this floor. There are lots of rooms for lots of different activities — administering anaesthetics, inserting the seeds, doing CT scans. It’s all very bright with nice colours, all chosen to create a more positive environment for patients.
National Cancer Control Programme chief Jerome Coffey is also on hand. “This has been well worth waiting for,” he tells the assembled audience. “I think we are going to train generations of staff here.”
Professor Geraldine McCarthy, chair of the board of the South Southwest Hospital Group, said CUH would have “the most up-to-date radiation oncology unit in the State”. The link with The Christie made CUH “clear winners in this unique collaboration”. She congratulated CUH chief executive Tony McNamara for getting the project over the line the week before his retirement.
“Tony has made an immense contribution to the delivery of public health projects,” she said.
