Radiotherapy & Planning
Radiotherapy is at the core of the clinical treatments provided for cancer patients in St. Luke's Radiation Oncology Network.
The Radiotherapy Department provides radiation treatment to patients with a variety of serious diseases and occasionally benign conditions.
Radiotherapy is a multidisciplinary specialty. It involves complex equipment and procedures and many separate intensive treatment stages and processes. These are all necessary to ensure that the patient makes progress right from the initial clinical decision to receive treatment, through the treatment delivery itself and the subsequent follow-up and after care.
Using sophisticated radiotherapy technology, we are dedicated to providing the best quality of care and support for patients throughout their treatment programme.
Radiation therapists have a critical role in the delivery of radiotherapy treatment, safely and effectively. Our primary focus at St. Luke's Radiation Oncology Network is to meet the individual needs of our patients throughout their treatment journey.
In the Radiotherapy Department, the radiation therapists on each treatment unit combine their great tradition of clinical expertise with close attention and care for each individual patient – each day, at each treatment.
Planning
The planning department is part of the radiotherapy department.
We plan the entire ‘pretreatment phase’ of a patient’s journey before any treatment starts. It can involve immobilisation, CT scanning, producing the treatment plan and then verification of the treatment plan.
We also prepare the patient’s treatment plan.
Physics professionals, planning radiation therapists and dosimetrists (specialists in dose measurement) make up the planning department team.
Every patient has their own individual and unique treatment plan specially developed by the planning department. Once the plan has been approved and signed off by your consultant and medical team, it then goes through the final stages of preparation and checking before treatment can commence.
Verification of the plan takes place on a simulator or at the treatment unit with the patient in the ‘treatment position’. Once this verification process has been completed the treatment can commence.