This is a Clinical Stream
Radiation Oncology
How we can help you
Radiation therapy involves the use of high-energy radiation therapy to control or kill tumour cells. It may be used to cure disease, reduce symptoms such as pain, and/or to prevent disease recurrence. Radiation therapy is a safe, effective and important part of the management of a range of cancers. Radiation can also be used for non-cancerous diseases. It may be given on its own or with other forms of treatment such as chemotherapy or surgery. Like having a routine X-ray, radiation therapy is painless.
Radiation therapy is a localised treatment which means it generally only affects the part of the body requiring treatment. Modern techniques accurately target cancer cells whilst minimising effects on normal healthy tissues.
Radiation therapy is most commonly given in the form of external X-rays generated from a treatment machine (Linear Accelerator). A course of radiotherapy treatment is often delivered over a number of days to weeks.
Radiotherapy treatment can also be delivered internally where small radioactive sources are placed inside the body (Brachytherapy). St George Cancer Care Centre specialises in a comprehensive list of brachytherapy services including prostate, breast, gynaecological, skin, lung and other sites.
Types of radiation therapy treatments available at St George Cancer Care Centre:
- Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT)
- Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT)
- Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) for malignant and non-malignant diseases
- Volumetric Modulated Radiation Therapy (VMAT)
- Brachytherapy
Your assessment, treatment planning and care are delivered at our clinics and specialist radiation therapy facilities in the Cancer Care Centre at St George Hospital. The radiation oncology team includes doctors, nurses, radiation therapists, medical physicists and allied health professionals who will work together to ensure the best approach to suit your individual needs.
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 7.30am to 5.00pm.
Medical Oncology
How we can help you
We provide care to people with cancer who are living in the community or staying in our Hospital. Our team of medical specialists use the latest research. We work with cancer care coordinators, radiation oncology, palliative care and nursing to provide holistic care for our patients.
We provide:
- Chemotherapy - medicines that destroy cancer cells.
- Immunotherapy - a treatment that helps your immune system fight cancer.
- Hormonal therapy for cancers that grow in response to your body’s hormones. This treatment uses synthetic hormones to block your natural hormones. This helps to reduce the size and slow down the spread of the cancer.
- Targeted therapy - medicines that work on specific features of cancer cells to stop it growing and spreading.
We provide chemotherapy services to people living in the community through our Haematology Oncology Day Centre (HODC). Here we provide short stay treatments and patient education. Our senior nursing staff will work with our specialists to deliver your treatment.
Our medical specialists see new patients and review the progress of current patients in our outpatient clinics located in the Cancer Care Centre, St George Hospital.
If you need higher dose chemotherapy or more supportive care, you may need to stay in our Hospital. We have a ward on level 7A of the Acute Services Building, St George Hospital.
The Cancer Care Centre St George Hospital can be entered via Chapel Street Kogarah or via a corridor to the left of the Gray Street entrance of the main hospital.
Haematology Oncology Day Centre (HODC) and Clinics are co-located in the Cancer Care Centre, St George Hospital.
Inpatient Oncology Ward is 7A, on level 7 of the Acute Services Building, St George Hospital.
Haematology
How We Can Help You
We care for people with cancerous and non-cancerous blood disorders. These include:
- Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin Lymphomas
- Leukaemias – acute and chronic
- Multiple myeloma and other plasma cell disorders
- Myeloproliferative disorders such as polycythemia rubra vera and essential thrombocythaemia
- Myelodysplastic syndromes
- Anaemias
- Thalassemia, sickle cell diseases, and other haemoglobinopathies
- Venous thrombosis such as DVT, Pulmonary Emboli and other clots
- Bleeding disorders such as Haemophilia, von Willebrand’s disease, platelet disorders
- Iron deficiency anaemia, and iron-loading syndromes
- Blood count abnormalities
Our services are for those staying in our Hospital as well as those living in the community.
For those who need to stay in Hospital, we have a ward located on Level 7B of the Acute Services Building at St George Hospital. Here we can provide chemotherapy and support if you have blood cancer. Chemotherapy is when we give you medicines that destroy cancer cells. We can also provide you high dose high dose chemotherapy and Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation (transplant of your own stem cells).
We provide treatments for people living in the community through our Haematology Oncology Day Centre. This is located on in the Cancer Care Centre at St George Hospital. Senior nursing staff liaise with specialist Doctors (Haematologists) to provide patients with day chemotherapy regimens, infusions, patient education, apheresis (removal of parts of your blood) and blood product support. We also provide support through the Ambulatory Care Unit.
The Centre also provides adult apheresis services to the St George hospital campus, and can collect and store Haematopoietic Stem Cells for the use in Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation.
Our Cancer Outreach Program can provide support to patients with malignant blood cancers in their homes.
St George Hospital also has a very active Clinical Trials Unit offering patients opportunities to access cutting edge therapies as part of either local or international Clinical Trials for both malignant and benign conditions.
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 8.00am to 5.00pm.