Radiation Oncology

More than one in three Australians will develop cancer in their lifetime and over half of these patients will require radiotherapy; either as the only treatment used, or in combination with surgery and/or chemotherapy.

Radiotherapy (or radiation therapy) is now one of the best-established, most effective and well tolerated therapies for treating nearly all types of cancer. Constantly accumulating evidence from clinical trials shows that radiotherapy offers clear benefits to patients with a wide variety of malignant conditions, both for cure and for palliative care.

Genesis CancerCare Newcastle is a state of the art radiotherapy centre co-located on the Lake Macquarie Private Hospital campus. It provides both public and private patients in the area with much needed immediate access to comprehensive cancer treatments and diagnostic assessments as part of the Hunter Cancer Centre.

Every aspect of the centre's design and offering is built around meeting patients' needs and providing immediate outpatient access to specialist consultant Radiation Oncologists. Two of the most advanced linear accelerators in the country have been installed together with imaging equipment that enables doctors to guide therapy that both maximises the radiation dose to the tumour and minimises exposure to surrounding healthy tissue. It is estimated that up to 500 patients will use the two linear accelerators every year, with up to 100 cancer out-patients being treated each day; with no waiting lists.