Definition:

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 anemia, 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 Tumor markers, which can increase the suspicion of certain types of tumors 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 tumor in its entirety.

Therapy:

∙          It depends completely on the nature of the tumor identified what kind of therapeutical intervention will be necessary. Certain disorders will require immediate admission and chemotherapy (such as ALL or AML), while others will be followed up with regular physical examination and blood tests.

∙          Fine needle aspiration cytology

∙          Bone marrow aspiration biopsy

∙          Peritoneal paracentesis

∙          Pleural paracentesis

∙          Lumbar puncture

Location of Service:

Currently patient’s are admitted in level 7 central (which is female & paediatric ward with 12 beds and 4 beds from level 7 east) and level 10 central for adult male with 15 beds.