Services

Radiotherapy is commonly used for the treatment of malignant tumors (cancer), and may be used as the primary therapy. It is also common to combine radiotherapy with surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or some mixture of the three. Most common cancer types can be treated with radiotherapy in some way. The precise treatment intent (curative, adjuvant, neoadjuvant, therapeutic, or palliative) will depend on the tumor type, location, and stage, as well as the general health of the patient.  We have a very busy unit with approximately 3000 patients treated every year.  All patients receiving treatment are seen in the clinic weekly during treatments.

The following table shows the services and facilities that are included:

Services	Facilities
-         Lymphoma & Gynecologic	-         Clinics (4)
-         GU & Thorax	-         Linear accelerator (4)
-         Breast	-         Simulator
-         Adult Neuro Bone & Sarcoma	-         CT- Simulator
-         Head & Neck	-         Developer
-         GI	-         HDR Brachytherapy
-         Lung	-         Mould Room
-         Pediatric Oncology	-         ADAC (3D planning system)
-         Special Procedures: (X-Knife, TBI, TLN, TSI)	-         Radiation Survey Meter
	-         Dosimetry system
	-         Ionization champer
	-         Invivo System

                                                           

Conformal Radiotherapy

Radiation can interact with and be absorbed by tissues, causing DNA damage in exposed cells and subsequent cellular death. This is basically the essence of radiation therapy in cancer patients, where the therapy aims to cause DNA damage to kill cancer cells. However, as both cancerous and healthy cells can equally absorb radiation in turn becoming damaged, solutions for optimizing specific delivery of radiation to cancerous cells is highly sought after. New techniques are constantly being developed and tested worldwide.

KHCC improves its services in the field of radiation therapy on three levels: (i) Cancer imaging, (ii) Therapy planning and (iii) Radiation delivery.

(i) Cancer imaging:

The CT scan is used as an imaging tool to provide a very detailed picture of the inside of the body with accurate information about the location and size of the tumor.

(ii) Therapy planning:

In 2005, three-Dimensional Conformal Radiotherapy (3DCRT) was introduced at KHCC by the installation of three, 3-D radiation treatment planning systems. 3DCRT allows for the creation of individualized, 3-D digital data sets of patient tumors and normal adjacent anatomy using pictures taken by CT scan. These data sets are then used to generate 3-D computer models of the patient that helps in the calculation of radiation doses in complex therapy plans to deliver highly “conformed” or focused radiation. Such a practice is improving both the accuracy and the safety of dose delivery, minimizing unnecessary radiation to adjacent normal tissues. Moreover, 3DCRT allows a treatment of tumors, which in the past might have been considered too close to vital organs and structures, for radiation therapy. The 3DCRT allows radiation to be delivered to tumors of the head and neck in a way that minimizes exposure of the spinal cord, optic nerve, salivary glands and other important structures.  In addition to already established Conventional External Radiotherapy, Total Body Irradiation (TBI) and Total Skin Electron Irradiation (TSEI), the following conformal radiotherapies are now performed at KHCC:

1. Stereotactic irradiation (SRS, SRT); cranial and extracranial

2. Intracavitary Brachytherapy for gynecological malignancies

(iii) Radiation delivery:

Once the plan is set by the 3DCRT system, it is sent to machines called linear accelerators or linacs; these machines actually perform the treatment plan by producing pointed external beam radiotherapy to the site of the tumor. An important addition was the installation of two new linear accelerators with Multi-Leaf-Collimators (MLC) that custom shape the radiation field to match the tumor dimensions, while sparing normal tissue. Verification and a recording system, eye-view guided therapy and dosimetry equipment were also commissioned in 2005.

These modern additions will significantly decrease waiting time and interruptions during therapy; they will also assure efficient verification and increased precision of treatment, raising the overall efficacy of radiotherapy treatment at KHCC.

Why is our service unique?

-  We are one of only two places in Jordan providing radiation therapy.

- Our department has the only up to date facilities to accomplish our goal of providing the best treatment, because we use the up to date clinical practical guidelines and quality assurance.