Medical oncology is a recent discipline that appeared following development of effective medical treatments for cancer. Medical oncologists specialise in medical treatment for all kinds of tumour, except for malignant haematological tumours (blood cancers).

They have in-depth knowledge of the mechanisms of cancer and the way in which drugs used to treat it will act, and of possible complications linked to these drugs.

These medical treatments are:
•    Chemotherapy
•    Hormone therapy
•    Immunotherapy
•    New targeted therapies
•    Gene therapy
•    …

The role of the medical oncologists is of first importance as the disease progresses.

Cancers diagnosed early are localised and most often treated successfully with surgery and/or radiotherapy.
Treatment with medication can however also be useful before removal or irradiation of tumours. This “neo-adjuvant” treatment can reduce tumour volume, allowing it to be removed when surgery would previously have been impossible or too drastic. In bone cancers, for example, neo-adjuvant chemotherapy helps avoid amputation of a limb in some cases, instead offering more localised and less debilitating surgery.

In some circumstances, it is often recommended to complement surgical or radiotherapy treatment with a medical treatment, termed an “adjuvant”.
This additional chemotherapy helps prevent a recurrence of cancer by eliminating micro-metastases, and is therefore an important stage along the road to a cure. Adjuvant treatment is used widely in many cancers, such as breast, lung and bowel cancer.

Sometimes, however, in cases of disseminated tumours (metastases), which invade other body parts, chemotherapy can be the first choice of treatment.
The prognosis for metastatic cancers has thus improved considerably with the arrival of new chemotherapy molecules, such as taxane derivatives for breast cancer and, more recently, “targeted” medical treatments that destroy cancer cells more effectively while preserving neighbouring healthy tissue.
In colon cancer, treatment with new forms of chemotherapy, combined where necessary with targeted treatment, has allowed some patients with previously inoperable liver metastases to be treated and thus improved their chances of a cure.
The role of drugs, whether chemotherapy or “targeted” treatments, is therefore important in treatment of cancer.

The medical oncologists in the Cancer Centre work alongside others involved in diagnosis and treatment of cancer to define the best approach to be adopted for each patient.
The combined skills of imaging and microscopy specialists, organ specialists, medical oncologists, surgeons and radiotherapists allows the desired level of excellence to be reached.

Une partie de l'équipe de l'hôpital de jour

 

 

DAILY CARE

 

Chemotherapy is most often given in the outpatients’ department, in the day hospital centre. It does not require admission to hospital. Insertion of a special permanent intravenous catheter, called a portacath, improves patient comfort.
However, the way in which chemotherapy is administered is changing. In many situations, intravenous injections are steadily giving way to much more comfortable tablets. Also, new preventive drugs can be administered to prevent distressing nausea and vomiting.

The Cliniques Saint Luc Cancer Centre was one of the first institutions to develop this outpatient treatment.
Most forms of chemotherapy are now administered in the day hospital. This arrangement helps improve patient comfort levels.

More intensive forms of chemotherapy are administered in our classic hospital in-patient unit dedicated to cancer. This unit accommodates patients with complications linked to the disease and its treatment.

 

 

Une partie de l'équipe de l'unité de soins

Armed with their knowledge of the mechanisms of cancer, oncology specialists are embarking on research aimed at developing and evaluating new molecules with ever more refined methods of action that better combat cancer cells while preserving healthy cells.

The oncology laboratory is investing in a number of projects aimed at transferring discoveries made in basic research into clinical applications. These research works are mainly linked to melanoma immunotherapy and to a combination of immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy in cancer treatment.

The studies that they are undertaking together with laboratory researchers are discovering more effective and more easily tolerated molecules.

These advanced treatments are initially used in the framework of large-scale international studies in which academic reference centres, like our medical oncology unit, which manages over 60 research protocols at any one time, play a part.