Oncology 

Definition:

Oncology is the branch of medicine that studies tumours (cancer) and seeks to understand their development, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.

Patient Services:

Oncology is concerned with:

·         The diagnosis of cancer.

·         Therapy (e.g. surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other modalities).

·         Follow-up of cancer patients after successful treatment.

·         Palliative care of patients with terminal malignancies.

·         Ethical questions surrounding cancer care.

·         Screening efforts:

- of populations.

- of the relatives of patients (in types of cancer that are thought to have a hereditary        basis, such as breast cancer).

Diagnosis:

The most important diagnostic tool remains the medical history: the character of the complaints and any specific symptoms (fatigue, weight loss, unexplained anaemia, paraneoplastic phenomena and other signs). Often a physical examination will reveal the location of a malignancy.

Diagnostic methods include:

Biopsy, either incisional or excisional;

∙          Endoscopy, either upper or lower gastrointestinal, bronchoscopy, or nasendoscopy.

∙          X-rays, CT scanning, MRI scanning, ultrasound and other radiological techniques.

∙          Scintigraphy, positron emission tomography and other methods of nuclear medicine.

∙          Blood tests, including tumour markers, which can increase the suspicion of certain types of tumours or even be pathognomonic of a particular disease.

Apart from in diagnosis, these modalities (especially imaging by CT scanning) are often used to determine operability (i.e. whether it is surgically possible to remove a tumour in its entirety).

Therapy:

·         The kind of therapeutic intervention that will be necessary depends completely on the nature of the tumour identified. Certain disorders will require immediate admission and chemotherapy (such as ALL or AML), while others will be followed up with regular physical examinations and blood tests.

·         Fine needle aspiration cytology.

·         Bone marrow aspiration biopsy.

·         Peritoneal paracentesis.

·         Pleural paracentesis.

·          Lumbar puncture.

Location of Service:

Currently patients are admitted to Level 7 Central (which is the female and paediatric ward which holds 12 beds plus an additional 4 beds on Level 7 East) and Level 10 Central (which is a ward for adult males which holds 15 beds).