SKMC treats thyroid cancer

ABU DHABI // Thyroid cancer patients no longer have to leave the capital and stay away for days to receive radiation treatment. Sheikh Khalifa Medical City (SKMC) began administering radiation therapy at its thyroid cancer clinic on Sunday, hospital officials said yesterday. Because radiation can emanate from patients after they take the capsules that are used in the therapy, SKMC included a lead-lined isolation room in the clinic when construction began a year ago.

Patients will stay there for three to five days, until their radiation levels fall sufficiently for them to go home. Previously, SKMC provided only diagnosis and surgery for thyroid cancer, meaning patients had to travel to centres elsewhere, and remain for several days to undergo treatment with radioactive iodine. The SKMC clinic is currently treating 82 women for thyroid cancer, said Dr Ali Khalil, an endocrinology consultant and head of the clinic.

"It is now definitely more convenient to our patients to get fully treated here at SKMC and under the supervision of all their physicians rather than visiting other hospitals for the same purpose," he said. Thyroid cancer is the second most common form of the disease in Emirati women, after breast cancer, according to the National Cancer Registry. [e-mail]