A state-of-the-art brachytherapy center in Quebec City

Named in honor of the chemist Marie Curie, brachytherapy involves administering doses of radiation directly into a tumour.

This type of treatment was formerly offered at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, but the new premises of the Enfant-Jésus would be better suited to the needs of patients. Among the new features, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine is installed in the unit, which also has several intervention rooms adapted to surgical procedures.

IRM was rather restricted before”,”text”:”Access to MRI was rather restricted before”}}”>Access toIRM was rather restricted, beforesays Martine Lefebvre, brachytherapy and radiation oncology coordinator at the CHU de Québec. Now we can use it for all fractions [doses de traitement] patients.

State-of-the-art treatments

The layout of the new premises also allows oncologists to offer more precise care, more quickly. Treatments that sometimes required hospitalization for more than a day and travel are now done in less than a day, in the same place. Spreading a treatment over several days sometimes caused problems, according to Martine Lefebvre.

IRM once for the four fractions, the other days, the patient comes back, the organs are not in the same place. The intestines are not in the same place”,”text”:”If I perform the MRI once for the four fractions, the other days, the patient comes back, the organs are not in the same place. The intestines are not in the same place”}}”>If I realize theIRM once for the four fractions, the other days, the patient comes back, the organs are not in the same place. The intestines are not in the same placeshe says.

Another novelty, a mobile operating table, which minimizes travel.

The patient never moves from that table, but the table, the surface of the table, will slide from place to place.explains William Foster, physician and radiation oncologist at the Integrated Cancer Center of the CHU de Québec.

Dr. William Foster is a physician and radiation oncologist at the Integrated Cancer Center of the CHU de Québec.

Photo: Radio-Canada / Flavie Sauvageau

Gynecological cancers, especially cervical cancer, and prostate cancers are the two most frequently treated cases at the centre, he said.

Since it opened in mid-May, the brachytherapy unit has been in full use.

With information from Flavie Sauvageau

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