Oncology Centers
In the Medicana Oncology Centers which are equiped with contemporary, modern, high tech, specific oncological diagnosis and treatment technologies, the Tumor Council practices are performed under the leadership of the Scientific Medicine Board.
- Medical Oncology
- Radiation oncology
- Nuclear Medicine
- Molecular Oncology
Cancer treatment requires a combination of many specialties. Various surgical branches, radiation oncology and medical oncology specialists work together. Pathology is very important during diagnosis and radiology and nuclear medicine departments are very important for strengthening the diagnosis and monitoring the results of treatment. The plague of our age cancer incidence in the world and in Turkey is increasing every day. In our country, approximately 200,000 people per year have cancer every year. In our country, in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, modern technologies and experienced specialists are at the service of our people.
Medical oncology is a branch of medicine that treats cancer. Medical oncology treats the cancer patient with cancer drugs (chemotherapy) and tries to solve the patient’s internal diseases (infections, renal insufficiencies, heart failure, nutritional disorders etc.). In the majority of cancer patients, the first treatment is the surgical removal of the tumor. This intervention provides both the treatment and the diagnosis of the disease. Depending on the location of the cancer and the organ it affects, various branches of surgery are involved the process. Branches such as general surgery, orthopedics, otolaryngology, gynecology or lung surgery, eye, urology perform first medical intervention. Medical oncology and radiation oncology branches continue the treatment in the post-operative period.
Advanced Modern Medical Technologies
Radiation oncology uses machines that radiate X-rays. It is performed to remove cancer cells from the operated area as well as to directly destroy cancer by irradiating the tumor for inappropriate patient for an operation.
Today, thanks to advanced technological devices in radiation oncology, the cancer tissue formed by abnormally growing cells is detected at an early stage before reaching a certain size and direct treatment of the diseased tissue is provided.
- Treatment of breast, head and neck and lung tumors,
- The treatment of deep and superficial tumors in other organs is successfully achieved.
Also thanks to devices that can directly detect diseased-tissue, there are advantages such as:
- The first diagnosis and staging of cancer
- Determination of diffuseness of the disease, evaluation of response to the treatment
- Determining the intensity of living cancer cells to be treated
- The most accurate treatment planning for the patient
- It can be easily used in all cancer patients and it keeps patients at a high level of comfort.
Radiotherapy
Radiotherapy means the killing cancer cells or stopping proliferation of cancer cells by high-energy radiation waves. Radiotherapy is a treatment method just as surgery and chemotherapy in cancer cases. Radiotherapy can be preoperatively, postoperatively performed, alone, or in combination with chemotherapy. The type of treatment depends on many important factors, such as the patient’s age, general health status, type of cancer, stage of cancer, and location of cancer. These treatment decisions are taken as a result of the evaluation of the patient by the specialist physicians from many different medicine branches from the beginning and each patient is individually evaluated. Therefore, even if they have the same type of cancer, the treatment of each patient is planned individually.
The difference of radiotherapy from chemotherapy is that it only kills cancer cells in the irradiated region and prevents or minimizes the recurrence of the disease.
Chemotherapy is a form of treatment that cancer-related drugs are delivered through the bloodstream and spread to whole body and causes death of tumor cells in blood and tissues.
Radiation Oncology
PET-CT
Radiation oncology is performed with three dimensional conformal and intensity regulated radiotherapy devices. These high technology devices allow the destruction of cancer cells and minimize the chance of recurrence by allowing high-dose treatment. They can be used in the treatment of both superficial and deeply located tumors. The device also has total body and half-body irradiation functions. Especially, bone marrow transplantation and a kind of skin lymphoma are required to full body irradiation.
In the radiation oncology department, PET-CT is used as a guide in the planning of the radiation therapy of cancer patient thus the possibility of the missing destruction of living tumor cells is eliminated. With this method, even the smallest tissue containing tumor cells is detected, the tumor is fully targeted and is included radiotherapy treatment area. Consequently, the tumor control rate and life expectancy of the patient are ultimately increased.
PET-CT has an important role in the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. PET-CT provides metabolic and molecular level imaging for the whole body and cancer areas in millimeters.
PET is a method of recording three-dimensional images that reflect the blood supply, metabolism and tissue viability. PET-CT is a system formed by combining PET and computed tomography in the same device.
PET-CT is most commonly used to detect oncologic diseases. PET-CT is used for the first diagnosis of the cancer, staging of the cancer, determining the prevalence of the cancer, evaluating the response to the treatment, determining the intensity of the living cancer cells and the most accurate treatment planning of the patient. PET-CT is easily performed in all oncological patients with the highest level of comfort.
Clinical Applications of PET and PET-CT
- Very early diagnosis and analysis of cancer,
- Determining whether treatment to be applied will be beneficial,
- The most effective treatment of cancerous area,
- Reduction of side effects during treatment,
- Monitoring recurrence in the treated area and protecting the patient from unnecessary chemotherapy,
- Determination of the cardiac muscle viability after infarction in cardiologic patients
- Determination of compliance of patients to the by pass or stent operations,
- Determination of surgical priority of epileptic patients,
- Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.
Brachytherapy
Currently, three-dimensional conformal brachytherapy is performed with radiation oncology. Images of the location of the resources and the special applicator inserted into the patient are taken and transferred to the planning system by the computed tomography devices. In this way, the accuracy of the application is checked, if there is an error, it is corrected before the treatment. After a three-dimensional image has been obtained and the necessary calculations are made, the patient is given medical treatment. This system also eliminates the possibility of missing destruction of tumor cells.