The Radiotherapy Department at Hospital Clínica Benidorm provides the ITIC with high standards of radiotherapy oncology treatments.
Radiotherapy is the treatment of cancer, or other processes, with the use of ionizing radiation. This is capable of causing “ionization”, molecular changes which affect cell structure. In the case of tumour cells, these changes can cause them to die and the tumour therefore disappears.
There are many forms of radiation available. Depending on the nature of the rays it can be photonic, when electromagnetic radiation is used or particulate when particles are used, such as electron, neutrons, protons, etc.
Also, depending on the position of the radiation source in relation to the tissue to be irradiated, it can be Teletherapy, when it is far away (one metre), outside the body or Brachytherapy when the source is placed inside body cavities or tissues either temporarily or permanently in certain cases, such as the definitive treatments for some types of prostate cancer.
Treatments
“Highly complex radiotherapy” techniques. The technological support of the Radiotherapy Department at ITIC makes it possible to carry out all manner of conventional radiotherapy treatments, including Total Body Irradiation or Total Skin Irradiation with electrons.
Furthermore, it is specially designed for carrying out “highly complex radiotherapy techniques, such as:
- Three-dimensional multi-conformal radiotherapy
- Radiosurgery
- Fractionated Stereotactic Radiotherapy
- Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)
- Endocavitary and Interstitial Brachytherapy
- Intraoperative Brachytherapy
- Prostate Brachytherapy with temporary Ir-192 implants
- Permanent Ir-125 implants for prostate cancer
- Radiotherapy for infant tumours
Technological Resources
The service has the following:
- Varian 2100 CD Lineal Accelerator, capable of producing beams of photons at two energy levels, 6 and 15 MV and electrons at 6, 9,12, 15, 18 and 20 MeV. It has a multi-leaf collimator to for fields of up to a maximum of 40×40 cm.
- BrainLab System, for radiosurgery and stereotactic radiotherapy, with a micro multi-leaf collimator to form fields of up to 10×10 cm.
- Brachytherapy system for high dosage rates with Ir-192, Nucletron Microselectron.
- Brachytherapy system for permanent prosthetic implants, with real-time dosimetry, automated release of I-125 seeds. First-Spot-pr system, Nucletron SeedSelectron.
- High-level planners linked to CAT, MR and PET-CAT, capable of carrying out actions ranging from virtual simulation to multi-conformal, stereotactic three-dimensional treatments, and intensity-modulated radiation by inverse calculation.
All of these systems make it possible to design, develop and administer radiotherapy treatments representing real ‘state-of-the-art’ radiotherapy, all within a framework of technical quality and the safety of our patients.
