Welcome to the Department of Radiation Oncology, Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou, the biggest radiation oncology department in Taiwan. We have eight linear accelerators which provide sophisticated radiotherapy techniques, such as Intensity-Modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), Image-Guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and respiratory gating. Three of them are able to perform a state-of-the-art technology: RapidArc therapy, which is a form of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). RapidArc, an advanced technology from Varian Medical Systems, improves dose conformity while significantly shorten treatment time. In addition, a Novalis system with micro-multileaf collimator provides the most accurate radiosurgery to most sites of the body, including both intracranial and extracranial targets. We also incorporate the 4D-CT technology with respiratory-gating system to treat the malignancies in the mobile organs, such as liver tumor and lung cancer. To provide the highest quality of patient care and a full range of treatment technologies to meet the stringent clinical requirement is always our most important goal. Our department is setting up the first proton therapy center in Taiwan and is going to treat the first patient in the early 2014. Because proton releases most of its energy in a specific depth while leaving nearly no dose beyond the target region, it is an ideal radiation for many types of tumor. For example, for liver, lung, skull base and other tumors proton beam is able to safely deliver higher dose to the tumor and therefore the likelihood of tumor control is increased. For child, head and neck, or cancers located in the one side of the body, Proton therapy will spare the normal tissue beyond the target region and reduce the complications. Many well-known medical centers in USA, Japan, German, Korea and other countries had or are going to have proton therapy facility and our department will soon becomes a member in proton therapy society. We believe the set-up of first proton therapy is a milestone of cancer treatment in Taiwan.

Service & Specialty

There are seventeen attending physicians in our department. With the exception of junior faculties, all have academic appointment and several of them are associate or full professors. Each physician in our department have his own sub-specialty; the fields cover tumors of central nervous system, head and neck, lung, breast, esophagus, gastrointestinal tract, genitourinary tract, pediatrics, soft tissues, etc. The department has very active teaching and learning activities to continuously update our knowledge in cancer treatment, which include new case round, case round for specific cancer, resident seminar, journal seminars and many others. We also enthusiastically participate in the annual meetings of international cancer societies such as the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO), the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ESTRO). The Cancer Center in Chang-Gung Memorial Hospital at Linkou has nineteen cancer-treatment teams based on the primary cancer sites. The faculties in our department are active member in these teams had had a weekly joint meeting with other members including specialists in internal medicine, surgery, oncology, nuclear medicine, diagnostic radiology, and pathology. Inside the department, we also have weekly new patient round for each sub-specialty. All these activities will make the patient’s treatment to meet the highest standard of treatment protocol.