The first specialized conference on radiotherapy was held at the Regional Cancer Center

On September 17-18, a scientific and practical conference “Modern technologies in radiotherapy” with international participation was held on the basis of the Regional Cancer Center. Its results are summed up by the acting deputy chief physician for radiation safety, head of the radiotherapy department No. 1 Yegor Snetkov.

“It is worth to mention that such an event was held in our center for the first time. Of course, the topic of radiation therapy is regularly raised at various conferences and seminars, but they have never been fully devoted to this topic”, emphasizes Yegor Snetkov. “And the debut turned out to be very successful. We managed to bring together top-class specialists from the central clinics of Russia: such as the N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, N.N. Burdenko National Medical Research Center of Neurosurgery, NMRRC of P. Hertsen, NMIC of Meshalkin, Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, SBEH MKNC of A. Loginov, as well as specialists from the Sverdlovsk region, Balashikha”. In addition, our friends from Switzerland took part in the conference. Their presentations significantly expanded the medical horizons of our doctors, also allowed us to adopt a number of innovations”.

For example, earlier in the Irkutsk Cancer Center, radiation therapy was mostly denied to patients with pacemakers – this had to be done due to a lack of such experience. Now, after listening to the report of the leading expert in radiotherapy of LLC Oncology and radiology Center PET-Technology Balashikha, radiation therapist Alexander Pankratov, his Irkutsk colleagues have a clear understanding of how to carry out such manipulations without unnecessary risks to the patient.

            

In addition, earlier in Irkutsk the treatment of localized breast cancer after organ-preserving surgeries, patients were given 25 sessions of radiation therapy. But now, as a result of the report of the deputy director for medical work of the Research Institute of Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology named after A.B. Zborovsky, head of the radiotherapy department of the N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, chief radiotherapist of MEDINVESTGROUP LLC, associate professor of Sechenov University, candidate of medical sciences Marina Chernykh “Hypofractionation in clinical practice”, radiation therapy can be reduced to 15 sessions.

“And if we manage to equip our existing linear accelerators with equipment for radiosurgical treatment in the near future, then the experience of our colleagues in the treatment of metastatic cancer that has spread into the brain, kidneys, lungs, liver and bones, voiced at the conference, will be very useful to us. We will be able to use it in the treatment of early localized malignant neoplasms of the lung without the involvement of surgeons and, accordingly, without the side effects caused by surgery”, says Yegor Snetkov. “The presentation by our Novosibirsk colleague from the NMIC of Meshalkin Evgeny Polovnikov on the experience of radiation treatment of the brain vascular malformations was very interesting as well”.

In turn, Snetkov himself has piqued his colleagues’ interested with the report, where he shared his experience, unique by Russian standards, in treating brain gliomas on a tunnel-type linear accelerator. The report of the senior medical physicist of the Regional Cancer Center Andrei Uvarov, dedicated to the planning of breast irradiation, was also very interesting for the guests of the conference.

            

It should be noted that this conference was significant not only for doctors, but also for the nursing staff: for the first time in the Irkutsk practice a separate nursing section was active, where issues of organizing nursing services in a modern oncology and radiology center were discussed. For example, officially today the medical specialty of radiation technologist doesn’t exist in Russia: they are called either laboratory assistants, or nurses, or nurses of gamma therapy devices. Meanwhile, radiation technologists possess a specific set of skills in addition to the regular nursing knowledge and perform a variety of major responsibilities. However, in medical organizations, including the Irkutsk Cancer Center, there is still no common understanding of their role and status. The report given by the first nurse of the Oncology and radiology Center PET-Technology Balashikha LLC Guzel Agadullina has helped to fill this gap.

“In a word, the program of this two-day conference turned out to be very rich and will allow us to use the experience of colleagues from other clinics to improve our work for the benefit of patients in need of radiation therapy,” sums up Yegor Snetkov.