INDC Entité Jolimontoise on the frontline in the fight against cancer

The hospital group INDC Entité Jolimontoise (“INDC”) today presents its latest acquisition, a stereotactic radiosurgery platform for the treatment of cancer. The platform will offer new possibilities to the INDC’s various departments and can help improve the comfort of many patients during treatment.

Cancer: a modern scourge in constant evolution In Belgium more than 160 people (1) are diagnosed with cancer every day, which equates to more than 60,000 new patients each year. The estimation is that one in three men and one in four women will be treated for cancer before the age of 75, and this figure continues to increase.

The three main cancer treatment options are surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Amongst various solutions available at the INDC, radiotherapy—the use of ionizing radiation for therapeutic purposes—is essential. It is estimated that nearly 50% of all cancer patients benefit from a treatment including radiotherapy at some point during their treatment regiment. This powerful tool is of strategic importance in the main Belgian cancer centers, including the Centre Hospitalier Jolimont-Lobbes.

The radiotherapy department at the leading edge of technology In line with a regional development strategy set out by the INDC Entité Jolimontoise and its institutions, the radiotherapy service of the CH Jolimont-Lobbes has developed collaboration partnerships with the different medical institutions in the region and opened a dialogue on diverse cancer issues together with the respective oncology, radiotherapy and surgery departments.

Dr. C. Mitine, Head of the Radiotherapy-Oncology Service, explains: “We are committed to providing quality treatment to our partners and their patients. Our service continuously invests in new technology and the necessary expertise of trained professionals to operate that technology. By the acquisition of the Novalis® Radiosurgery platform, we reaffirm our drive to remain a center of excellence by offering our patients access to highly specialized treatments. We were also one of the first centers in Wallonia to offer cranial stereotactic radiosurgery, which delivers a high dose of cancer fighting radiation to a small target volume or lesion in the brain or spine that offers hope for patients in the long term preservation of neurocognitive function.”

Novalis® at Jolimont-Lobbes: a great addition for the region “The choice to invest in Novalis Radiosurgery is much more than just a financial one, as it demonstrates our commitment to human resources, scientific investigation and clinical outcomes,” Dr. Mitine adds, “We consider that the acquisition offers a real qualitative advantage to the patients treated within our service and this state-of-the-art radiosurgery platform can offer patients a therapeutic treatment option that has been shown to be reliable, fast, safe and efficient, potentially reducing the risk of side effects in the fight against cancer.”

As an integral part of Novalis, the system utilizes a high-tech patient positioning system ExacTrac®, which enables the medical team to check the exact position of the tumor compared with the critical surrounding structures that need to be protected. This advanced technology can also assist in the monitoring of patient breathing or movement during treatment and adapt the treatment accordingly.

Dr. Mitine explains: “In order to use all these innovations to their full potential, the members of the medical team have worked to update their knowledge and to learn how to use these new treatment techniques in the clinical environment.”

A better level of comfort in treatment Novalis® Radiosurgery offers new possibilities to specialists of the INDC. On top of precision, the platform can improve the comfort of patients and the speed of each treatment, which usually takes no longer than 20 minutes. It is moreover possible to treat the patients without an invasive stereotactic frame (2).

In conclusion, Dr Mitine comments that, Novalis is “a real step forward taken for all of our patients, our team and the entire region in the fight against cancer”.

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(1) According to the latest data available (2008) from the Fondation Registre du Cancer www.registreducancer.org for Belgium.

(2) Some doctors may opt for a headframe for some indications