Abstract
Singapore is a small country, but it is ideally and centrally located to conveniently serve not only its population but also patients from the surrounding regions. It’s economy is sufficiently strong to maintain highly sophisticated and expensive equipment to manage a high level of healthcare, including oncology services.Cancer incidences in Singapore are on an upward trend based on the report of the Singapore Cancer Registry for the period of 2001-2005. Cancer is the number one cause of death in Singapore. The three most common cancers for males in Singapore, in decreasing occurrences, are colorectal, lung, and prostate. For females, the three most common cancers are breast, colorectal, lung cancers. Technological advances and advances in anti-cancer drugs have transformed cancer management leading to improved outcomes worldwide and in Singapore as well. The epidemiology and management of these common cancers in Singapore are presented. While Singapore presently has five radiotherapy centres (3 public, 2 private) to service its population of 4.5 million and regional needs, the government has plans to expand its radiotherapy services to accommodate the aging population and the rising expectations of increasingly affluent cancer patients seeking advanced cancer care. The current and future initiatives spearheaded by Singapore to achieve excellence in this aspect are discussed.
Highlights
Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) utilises small beamlets of ionising radiation to provide a highKhamfongkhruea et al Biomed Imaging Interv J 2012; 8(1):e5This page number is not for citation purposes use a respiratory gating system
The measurements by MapCheck show the gamma index of the planned absolute dose distribution in static and moving targets with gating, resulting in more than 96% passing for all dose rates
The absolute dose distribution measured by film for the static target was agreeable with the value of moving target with gating
Summary
Intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) utilises small beamlets of ionising radiation to provide a highKhamfongkhruea et al Biomed Imaging Interv J 2012; 8(1):e5This page number is not for citation purposes use a respiratory gating system. Chen et al [5] studied the dosimetric effects caused by the respiratory motion during IMRT by using Kodak EDR2 films. They concluded that, without the gating system, the dose distribution of the stationary phantom was different from the moving one. Duan et al [7] studied the dosimetric effect of respiration-gated beam with IMRT delivery Their results suggested that low dose rate can reduce the effect of delay and catch-up cycle. Lin et al [2] determined the effect of radiation dose rate with moving target and the gated treatment using step-and-shoot IMRT delivery. The high dose rate gated stepand-shoot IMRT was dosimetrically accurate, shortened the delivery time, and was safe to use clinically
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