Women needing radiation therapy to treat gynaecological cancers no longer have to travel daily to Melbourne, or relocate there, for weeks of treatment after an expansion of services in Ballarat.
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Ballarat radiation oncologist Dr Thanuja Thachil has treated 50 women with gynaecological cancers at the Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre, saving them a total of 1500 stressful trips and thousands of hours of travel to Melbourne for treatment.
Being able to stay in Ballarat, with family and friends around them, has also improved their psychological health and wellbeing during difficult times.
"As you would imagine, gynaecological cancers impact patients quite significantly - any cancer is a significant burden not only to patients but their carers and entire family," Dr Thachil said.
"When it comes to gynaecological cancers many of these women are young, have school aged kids and families, and ... having to send them to Melbourne for treatment which lasts five or six weeks has quite an impact on them.
![Kathleen Payton was one of the first women to undergo radiation therapy for a gynaecological cancer at Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre, saving her weeks of treatment in Melbourne. Picture by Lachlan Bence Kathleen Payton was one of the first women to undergo radiation therapy for a gynaecological cancer at Ballarat Regional Integrated Cancer Centre, saving her weeks of treatment in Melbourne. Picture by Lachlan Bence](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/michelle.smith/b46b7389-6e76-403a-b331-b9b125a0069b.jpg/r0_124_6192_4128_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I believe that patients have the right to receive treatment close to home wherever possible."
Before Dr Thachil moved to Ballarat in 2019 to start the service, women with cervical, ovarian, uterine, vaginal and vulvar cancers had been able to undergo chemotherapy treatment at BRICC, but had to travel to Melbourne hospitals for radiation therapy.
"External beam radiation treatment can mean appointments every day for five to six weeks, which would mean a lot of travel or relocation to Melbourne. It's a huge advantage to patients to be able to deliver that treatment locally," Dr Thachil said.
One of her early patients in Ballarat was Kathleen Payton who was diagnosed with vulvar cancer at age 66.
Diagnosed in September 2019, she was referred to Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne to have the cancer removed and thought her whole cancer journey would be over and done with in around three weeks.
I was just so lucky because they had only hired Dr Thachil in the September. I wouldn't be here without that lady.
- Kathleen Payton
It took eight weeks before she could be seen there and tests before a planned surgery revealed the cancer had spread and she needed chemotherapy and radiotherapy which would be done at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.
But a radiation oncologist there knew Dr Thachil had just been hired at Ballarat Base Hospital and in December Ms Payton finally began treatment less than 10 minutes from her Sebastopol home.
"I had 30 days of radiation and six sessions of chemotherapy ... and right from the beginning I was told that probably after four weeks I would have to be admitted for extra strong painkillers because you can imagine what radiation did around the private area," she said.
It turned out she was in hospital and rehabilitation for seven weeks, and her husband and family could visit daily - something that could not have happened had she been in Melbourne.
"I was just so lucky because they had only hired Dr Thachil in the September. I wouldn't be here without that lady."
![Grampians Health clinical trials coordinator Michelle Braybrook, radiation therapist Lucille Scott, colorectal cancer coordinator Jayme Goldsmith, radiation oncologist Thanuja Thachil and nurse unit manager Jinu Andrews are providing cancer care to Ballarat women close to home, helping them avoid travel to Melbourne. Picture supplied Grampians Health clinical trials coordinator Michelle Braybrook, radiation therapist Lucille Scott, colorectal cancer coordinator Jayme Goldsmith, radiation oncologist Thanuja Thachil and nurse unit manager Jinu Andrews are providing cancer care to Ballarat women close to home, helping them avoid travel to Melbourne. Picture supplied](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/michelle.smith/4c16b48d-4b73-4a94-a81b-88d791181ad0.jpg/r0_60_3013_1754_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Even now, four years after her diagnosis and three and a half years after completing her treatment, she still visits Dr Thachil and her gynaecologist every three months, as well as her GP as she continues to suffer some side effects from treatment.
"I just think how ... I wouldn't be able to do all that if I had to go to Melbourne," she said.
Dr Thachil said it was vital to keep patients as close to family as possible.
"Most of these patients have such complex psycho-social situations, and hence the worst thing you can do is to dislocate them from their family and their existing support systems at the challenging time of treatment. In some cases, it can even mean patients being unable to complete their treatment course, or not having treatment at all."
She said most women, if they had to go to Melbourne for treatment, would stay there the entire duration - isolating them potentially from children, partners, family and friends.
"Because you are treating the pelvic area it creates side effects of nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, urgency of bladder and bowel. All the side effects creep up slowly during treatment. The first couple of weeks they may be able to travel back and forth but it's quite a long distance ... toward the latter two or three weeks of treatment they will find it very difficult to travel daily because the bowel and bladder are very active."
Add to that many women are also undergoing chemotherapy at the same time.
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Dr Thachil treats around 10 to 15 women a year in Ballarat with gynaecological cancers, with each patient receiving 30 to 35 individual treatments.
The radiation therapy offered at BRICC uses external radiation beams, but a small fraction of patients still have to travel to Melbourne if their treatment required brachytherapy (internal radiotherapy) which cannot be done in Ballarat.
The success of the program has garnered significant attention among leading medical specialists, with Dr Thachil recently presenting at a Victorian radiation oncology meeting.
BRICC's radiotherapy service is a long-standing partnership between Grampians Health and Austin Health, with Dr Thachil's gynaecological radiotherapy program also linked with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Mercy Hospital for Women.
"I am privileged to be working with such a dedicated regional team, and to have linkages to specialist metropolitan units in order to fulfill this task of providing high-quality radiation oncology services to patients with gynaecological cancer in the Grampians region," she said.
September is Gynaecology Awareness Month.
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