Targeting skin cancer: New machine at KGH delivers another treatment option

For the last few years, it was a type of cancer treatment you would have to travel to Ottawa or Toronto to receive, but now orthovoltage is once again available here at Kingston General Hospital. Orthovoltage is a type of radiation that is strong enough to treat cancer cells while not penetrating too deeply through the skin. This makes it an ideal treatment for several types of skin cancer.

“This therapy can focus radiation on a smaller area so that less of the patient’s healthy tissue receives radiation,” says Dr. Timothy Hanna, Radiation Oncologist at KGH. “If a patient needs treatment on their cheek, we can target the treatment so it doesn’t impact other parts of their face, such as the eye. This can mean the difference between some mild discomfort in the eye and a partial loss of vision.”

For eligible patients, orthovoltage treatments can make their cancer journey simpler and more comfortable. With traditional radiation treatment, the patient goes inside a bunker to be treated by a large, powerful linear accelerator (LinAc). Orthovoltage treatment provides an experience that a patient may find less intimidating.

“It actually looks quite a bit like what you’d see when you get an x-ray at the dentist’s office. It’s a small machine that we can bring right up to the area of affected skin,” says Hanna.

Before this new machine arrived, if patients wanted to stay in Kingston, they had two main options, treatment on a LinAc machine or surgery.

“Surgery can leave scars, so it’s not desirable for many people with skin cancer on visible parts of their body. On the other hand, for skin cancer cases, the LinAc is not suited to provide sharply defined treatment borders,” says Hanna. “The orthovoltage unit gives our patients another choice for treatment, and offering it here at KGH allows them to remain close to home.”

This new service will also benefit the hospital by freeing up the LinAc machines for patients who are more in need of the kind of treatment they can provide. Also, with Orthovoltage, patients’ treatments are now standardized and require fewer resources from team members, such as Physicists and Dosemitrists without sacrificing quality and safety. Those staff members are now able to spend more of their time and focus on planning more complex cases.

“It took a team effort to bring this treatment option back to KGH. We are very excited to have this service available for patients,” says Hanna.