Radiation - Oncology

The Department of Radiotherapy was founded in 1925. Between 1946 and 1976, the Department was operating under the supervision of Prof. Paul Ponthus. During this time, it was considered a center of reference in terms of cancer treatment throughout the Middle East. However, the Department closed its doors during civil war. It was until September 2001 that the new Department of Radiotherapy was launched under the supervision of Prof. Elie Nasr. Since then, more than 12000 patients have received high quality treatments. In addition, more than 2000 cases have been treated since 2013 with advanced techniques: VMAT, IMRT, SBRT, SRS and SRT.

In 2013, HDF introduced the TrueBeam system for the first time in Lebanon. In 2014, HDF installed a second identical TrueBeam system, equipped with a robotic table. This unique structure in Lebanon, consisting of two TrueBeam mirror machines, was created with the aim of minimizing the risk of treatment interruptions in case of maintenance or sudden breakdown, which could have a negative impact on treatment results.

Three radiation oncologists and two physicists (PhD)  share their expertise and knowledge with students and residents, as well as the community.

The Department is currently equipped with:

• Two TrueBeam 2.7 treatment systems featuring the latest advanced imaging software, designed to target cancer with high precision
• ARIA 15.6 information management system
• Eclipse 15.6 treatment planning system
• Varian brachytherapy system

In addition to 3D-IMRT-VMAT-SRT radiotherapy and brachytherapy, some advanced techniques are used in clinical routine, namely stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), extracanial stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) and respiratory-gated radiotherapy.