MANGALORE: Electron therapy for skin cancer is now a reality in the coastal city. A patient suffering from skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma) was treated with electron therapy at AJ Cancer Institute of A J Hospital and Research Centre.
The 78-year-old woman had diagnosed with ulcerative lesion in the skin her neck about one year ago. It was non-healing and growing in size. When the patient approached the Institute, the ulcer was irregular in shape and measured about 3 x 3cm in size.
She was advised the electron therapy and was admitted under 8MeV electrons on May 27. As on date, the patient has almost completed her treatment and the lesion has regressed in size and has tolerated radiation well. She has had no side effects.
Skin cancer is superficial tumour. Though curable through surgery, it leads to scar formation and deformity. With help of the high-end linear accelerator, these tumours can be successfully treated.
Electron therapy delivers doses of radiation to tumours, which are superficial. There is practically no dose of radiation beyond certain limit. This feature of electron therapy makes it ideal treatment modality in treatment of superficial tumours such as skin cancer. This is a non-invasive (non-surgical) treatment. The department of radiation therapy at the institute, has 6 energies of electron for the treatment of superficial tumours of various depths.
Depending on the depth of the tumour, appropriate electron energy is selected and the treatment is delivered with help of electron cone.
The normal tissues are shielded using lead cut outs, Dr Prashanth Marla, medical director of A J Hospital and Research Centre, said. Dr Kamalaksh K Shenoy, consultant (radiation oncology) said the basal cell carcinoma is a not a very common occurrence and the therapy can be performed on patients of any age.