Palliation

Our multi-disciplinary approach

If curing a certain cancer is no longer possible, the aim of a radiotherapy treatment is to reduce disease-related symptoms, thereby improving your quality of life. This treatment phase can focus on either the disease or its symptoms. Pain relief is the most common reason for a palliative treatment. We discuss all patients in a multi-disciplinary team meeting, involving specialists in; medical oncology, nursing, anesthesiology / the UMCG Palliation Team, radiotherapy, general practitioner, psychiatry, lung specialist, surgery, geriatrics, gastro-enterology, social workers, spiritual care and your physician.

We use all modern imaging technology (CT, MR, PET) to prepare an optimal radiation treatment. The radiation-oncologist uses these images and the CT-scan for radiotherapy planning, to determine the region to be treated with high accuracy. Patient comfort has the highest priority during both image-acquisition and the radiotherapy treatment. The most common treatment schedules are a single irradiation or a series of five irradiations. Applying the radiation treatment can be stressful for the patient, for example due to chronic pain. We therefore minimize the time needed for imaging, positioning and treatment.

You can find more information about our treatment techniques here.

Proton therapy

Palliative radiation treatments are delivered using photon therapy. In this palliative treatment phase, patients are not eligible to receive proton therapy.

All our radiation-oncologists apply palliative treatments. For some of us, palliative treatments are a focus area.

S. Bijmolt, MD

Specialization:
Palliative gynecological tumors
Urological tumors
Gynaecological tumors

S.A. de Boer, MD, PhD

Specialization:
Palliative lung tumors
Lung tumors

O. Chouvalova, MD

Specialization:
Breast tumors
Lung tumors
Palliation

M. Dieters, MD

Specialization:
Palliative gastrointestinal tumors
Gastrointestinal tumor

C. Hammer, MD

Specialization:
Palliative urological tumors
Urological tumors

M.C.A. Kramer, MD, PhD

Specializatione:
Palliative care for neurological tumors
Brain tumors
Skull base tumors
Tumors of the spinal cord (adults)

E. Oldehinkel, MD

Specialization:
Palliative head-neck tumors 
Head-neck tumors

P.F. Sinnighe, MD

Specialization:
Palliation
Urological tumors

There currently are no active clinical trials.