Cancer patients will benefit from technology that will deliver millimetre-precise radiation doses and reduce exposure time
The new linear accelerator at the Rosell hospital in Cartagena is now up and running and will enable the treatment of 400 more cancer patients a year. The device, which cost three million euros, is the most accurate in the Region of Murcia.
It is the third accelerator for cancer patients in Health Area II, together with those already in operation at the Santa Lucía hospital, and the most accurate in the autonomous community. «The system, located behind the Rosell hospital in a building that includes a bunker, will make it possible to treat tumours of less than five centimetres in size and in early stages, all with millimetric precision and with less exposure time and sessions,» according to Juan Salinas, head of Radiotherapy Oncology.
The new radiotherapeutic treatment techniques offered by the new Rosell accelerator, such as stereotactic radiosurgery and stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT), make it possible to offer higher doses of radiation with greater millimetric precision, reduced exposure time, a reduction in the number of sessions and, therefore, greater comfort for patients.
The president of the Community, Fernando López Miras, today visited the new linear accelerator of the Radiation Oncology service located at the Santa María del Rosell University Hospital in Cartagena, which has already begun to offer the techniques.