Radiotherapy

We provide efficient and effective radiotherapy services to patients from all over the south of England with a comprehensive well equipped department using state of the art treatment and planning facilities.
 
Our aims are:

• To work together in effective and efficient partnerships and teams
• To continuously improve our patients' care through education and training
• To treat everyone with dignity and respect

The Radiotherapy Department is the only department within the South West Surrey and Hampshire Cancer Network (SWSHCN) to provide radiotherapy services. It is responsible for the provision of radiotherapy services to a population of 1.2 - 1.4 million and over 3000 new referrals are seen in the centre each year. On average 170 - 200 patients are undergoing radiotherapy at any one time, utilising a range of simple to complex 3D radiotherapy treatments.

All  5 of our Varian linear accelerators are state of the art multi-modality with multi leaf collimation, electronic portal imaging and are capable of delivering intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). The external beam treatment pathway is fully networked utilising the ARIA system. The centre has an active brachytherapy program with Iodine-125 seed implants for prostate cancer and high dose rate (HDR) remote after loading.
 
The Radiotherapy Department has 2 dedicated GE multi-slice Computed Tomography (CT) scanners and 1 Varian Acuity® Simulator. 3-D treatment planning uses the Varian Eclipse® treatment planning system, with 11 workstations, including 3 inverse planning modules.
 
A pro-active development programme includes the introduction of the ProSoma® 3-D virtual simulation package for clinical use; commissioning of Image Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) using on-board kilo-voltage imaging; and expansion of the IMRT programme through clinical trials.  MRI and PET/CT imaging are available and their use in treatment planning is under development. We are presently using MRI and CT fusion for planning radiotherapy to the brain.
 
We are a teaching department, providing the clinical training for therapy radiographers, with close links to Kingston University London and London South Bank University. The Radiotherapy Physics Department hosts medical physics students from the University of Surrey.
 
The Radiotherapy Department is open Monday to Friday. The core opening hours are 8.00am - 5.00pm, however, it occasionally runs services until 7.00pm and some Saturday mornings.

For a glossary of terms please click here.