LEARNING OUTCOMES
THEORY
On completion of the course the student will be able to:
- know the different types of radiotherapy equipment and how to use it
- know the basics of medical oncology
- know the purpose of the applied radiotherapy treatment
- know the routes of tumor spread and how to apply treatment for palliation or therapy
- know in depth the particular issues relating to modern radiotherapy treatments in order to participate safely and effectively in treatment application and research
The student should be familiar with:
- the available treatment methods
- the effects and side effects of treatment on the patient’s general condition
- the timing and the time intervals between treatments
- the progress in disease prevention, diagnosis and treatment and the availability of alternative methods in treating malignant diseases.
HOSPITAL PLACEMENT
The aim is for the student to understand, familiarize and practice teletherapy treatment planning as well as to understand the extended role of the radiotherapy technologist, their duties and responsibilities.
SYLLABUS
THEORY
1. Prostate cancer: introduction, epidemiology, etiopathogenesis, symptoms, clinical picture, clinical staging, TNM, Gleason score, diagnosis, radiotherapy, interstitial application in combination with external beam radiotherapy, side effects and complications of radiotherapy. Biopsy reassessment following radiotherapy, dealing with local recurrence and palliative radiotherapy, prognosis, hormonal therapy in prostate cancer (introduction, estrogens, orchiectomy, LHRH analogues, antiandrogens, adrenalectomy, total androgenic blockage, anti-prolaktin factors, progesterone)
2. Malignant tumours of the penis, testicular malignant tumors (epidemiology, symptoms – clinical picture – routes of spread, etiopathogenesis, clinical staging, istopathologoanatomical classification, diagnosis, radiotherapy)
3. Malignant neoplasms of skin: introduction, skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma and treatment, squamous cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma specific positions, benign diseases of the skin. Malignant melanoma: introduction, nevus of Spitz, Dysplastic nevus of Clark, nevus of Reed, melanoma local recurrence, expanding superficial melanoma, melanoma type lentigo, malignant melanoma of the extremities, nodular melanoma, melanoma etiogenetical factors. Melanoma: treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, hormone therapy)
4. Bone and soft tissue sarcomas: bone tumors (introduction, epidemiology, etiology, clinical staging, malignant bone tumors, malignant synovioma joints, clinical manifestations and diagnosis, metastatic spread, prognosis, therapy, osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, malignant histiocytoma of bones, giant cell bone sarcomas, Ewing sarcoma). Soft tissue sarcomas (introduction, epidemiology, etiology, clinical manifestations and diagnosis, differential diagnosis, staging and prognosis, treatment, radiation therapy, patient care.
5. Malignant neoplasms in children: the size of the problem, the role of radiotherapy in childhood oncology, general principles of radiotherapy in children, leukaemia in children, brain tumors in children, brain tumour radiation therapy (posterior fossa tumours, astrocytomas, medulloblastomas and planning technique of the CNS, brain stem gliomas, choroid plexus papillomas and cerebral ventricles, supratentorial tumors: astrocytomas, pituitary tumours, pineal tumors, oligodendrogliomas, meningiomas, Hodgkin’s disease in children, non-Hodgkin lymphomas of children, neuroblastoma, nephroblastoma or tumour of Wilms, rhabdomyosarcoma children, bone and soft tissues sarcomas of children (osteosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, giant cell tumor, histiocytosis).
6. Lymphoma: Hodgkin disease (epidemiology, diagnosis, disease assessment scale, classification-staging, prognostic factors, factors that affect therapeutic choice, therapeutic principles, and the problem of laparotomy, radiotherapy planning techniques, therapeutic indications, complications of treatment, outcomes and follow-up. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (epidemiology, pathophysiology and classifications, diagnosis, assessment of the extent of disease, staging prognostic factors, chemotherapy and combined treatments, basic therapeutic principles, radiotherapy.
7. Leukaemia and other haematological diseases: Acute leukaemia (epidemiology, etiopathogenetic factors, symptoms, diagnostic access, natural history, prognosis of treatment- general principles, the role of radiotherapy and the problem of meningeal relapse).
8. Leukaemia and other haematological diseases: Acute leukaemia (role of radiotherapy techniques and results of radiotherapy). Secondary leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndromes, chronic leukemias and myeloproliferative diseases, multiple myeloma.
9. Metastatic disease: introduction, epidemiology, etiology, lymphatic spread, haematogenous spread, spread by implantation, staging, therapy, brain metastases (clinical picture, laboratory tests, treatment). Metastatic disease: bone metastases (introduction, clinical picture, laboratory tests, diagnosis and therapy. General principles of chemotherapy of malignant neoplasms, short history review of cancer chemotherapy, antineoplastic drugs – action toxicity).
10. From prevention to treatment of the commonest malignancies like, breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, melanoma, female reproductive system cancers.
11. Emphasis is given on the therapeutic approaches with combination of anticancer therapies, such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, immunotherapy and gene therapy. Moreover, knowledge is given to the students about the rescue of organs by combining oncological therapies and they become aware of the combination of different drugs, used in daily practice
12. Chemotherapy drugs and hormone therapies used in everyday practice. Toxicity resulting from each treatment separately as well as from the combination of oncological therapies particularly.