ANP
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NOS News•today, 09:55•Amended today, 10:12
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Some cancer patients need less hospital visits for their treatment. These were shortened at a rapid pace during the corona pandemic, following advice from the Dutch Association for Radiotherapy and Oncology. Doctors wanted to protect cancer patients against the virus in corona time by limiting the number of hospital visits.
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The shorter treatments do not affect its effectiveness. The total dose of radiation, for example, remains the same, but more is administered at the same time per individual treatment, it writes AD.
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As a result, men with low- and medium-risk prostate cancer only have to go to hospital five times for radiation. Previously that was 30 to 35 times. Some women with breast cancer previously had to be irradiated about fifteen to twenty times, which has now been reduced to five times.
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Some of the patients receiving immunotherapy for bladder cancer or melanoma previously received treatment every three weeks. The drug is now administered once every six weeks.
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Scientifically proven
Doctors assess per patient whether a shortened trajectory is possible. That depends on the type of cancer, the patient’s condition and the equipment in the hospital. Sometimes advanced equipment is required. Cancer treatments have only been adjusted if studies have shown that this was justified, oncologists and radiation oncologists emphasize.
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Patients are happy with the shortened treatment period, says chairman of the Oncology Platform Soncos Marcel Verheij in the NOS Radio 1 News. They do not experience any additional side effects, says Verheij, who is a radiotherapist-oncologist herself.
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The shortened treatment trajectories do not have a direct effect on the waiting lists. Because the pandemic is not over yet, staff are still regularly absent. Verheij expects that the new treatment method will only have a positive effect on the waiting lists once the staff shortage has been resolved.
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