Cork University Hospital (CUH) has become the first public hospital in Ireland to begin offering stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to patients with liver tumours. This game-changing radiation therapy may be used to treat patients with medically inoperable primary and secondary liver cancers – completely transforming the treatment options currently available. 

 

Leading the initiative to bring this treatment to patients in CUH are Prof Aisling Barry, chair of radiation oncology at UCC and consultant radiation oncologist, CUH, and Dr Sean O’ Cathail, consultant radiation oncologist, CUH. 

 

Prof Barry said: “We are thrilled to finally be able to offer this life-changing treatment to patients right here in CUH. SBRT allows us to deliver high precision, high dose radiation, limiting damage to surrounding healthy tissue and organs. The delivery of such a specialised treatment requires significant input from our radiation therapy and medical physics colleagues, who have been paramount in developing this service. Liver SBRT now gives us and patients another treatment option and we are proud to be the first public hospital in Ireland to do so.”

 

Using high beams of energy, SBRT carefully targets tumours, damaging the DNA in their cells to prevent them from growing or multiplying. This technique is painless and non-invasive and offers a relatively non-toxic and short course of radiotherapy for patients. With incidence of cancer expected to continue to rise over the coming years, therapies like SBRT will play a major role in the future of cancer care in Ireland and as it typically requires fewer sessions than more conventional radiotherapy options, it is expected to have a significant cost benefit for patients and the health service as a whole. 

 

Patients receiving SBRT at CUH will do so at the state-of-the-art Glandore Centre which opened its doors in 2019 and sees approximately 2,000 patients each year. 

 

The centre already offers surface-guided radiation treatment (SGRT), another world-class radiotherapy treatment option which speeds up and improves the accuracy of treatment and provides a much more comfortable experience for patients.