18
columnist
The HEALTH | JUNE, 2018
DECODING CANCER TREATMENTS
Tomotherapy for nasopharyngeal cancer
2012 TERESA WINSLOW LLC
Dose calculation during planning.
N
asopharyngeal cancer is the fourth
commonest cancer in Malaysia.
Nearly three Malaysians a day are
diagnosed with this disease. It mainly
affects Chinese men and more than
two thirds are diagnosed with stage three or four
cancer.
Patients commonly present to
hospital with a lump in the neck
but this is often preceded by nasal
symptoms a few months prior to
the emergence of the neck lump.
The nasopharynx has many
lymphatic vessels and therefore
cancer cells spread easily to the
lymph nodes in the neck. Once a
cancer has been diagnosed, staging
of the cancer is important to help
guide treatment.
Ideally, a magnetic resonance
(MR) scan is done to properly
visualise the tumour in the
nasopharynx and its invasion to
surrounding tissues.
Cancers in stage one to three are
curable and the treatment recom-
mended is intended to get rid of
the cancer completely. Certain
stage four cancers may be curable
provided the cancer has not spread
elsewhere.
Tomotherapy
Radiotherapy is the use of X-rays
to trea