X

EMERGENCY

In an emergency, always call triple zero (000) for an ambulance. Ambulances are the safest way to be assessed, treated and transported to the right hospital for the care you need.

Triple zero (000) is a free call from any phone, mobile or phone box.

For less severe but still urgent situations, go to an Emergency Department.

There are 12 public hospital Emergency Departments in Northern NSW Local Health District and they are all available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Emergency departments are located at:

LOCAL BREAST CANCER TREATMENT IN AUSTRALIA-FIRST EVALUATION
Published: 08 Jul 2020

Local breast cancer patients are experiencing excellent results and fewer treatment side effects thanks to modern radiation therapy techniques used at the North Coast and Mid North Coast Cancer Institutes.

So successful are the techniques that a team led by local cancer experts has published an Australian-first evaluation of the curative approach.

Associate Professor Tom Shakespeare, a radiation oncologist working in the Northern NSW and Mid North Coast Local Health Districts, led the evaluation which examined the long-term outcomes of the techniques.

“Breast cancer can be cured with a combination of surgery and post-operative radiation therapy,” A/Professor Shakespeare said.

“We have treated more than 3,500 women with curative breast radiation in the Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie radiation oncology centres at the Mid North Coast Cancer Institute (MNCCI) and the North Coast Cancer Institute (NCCI) centre in Lismore.”

Each year, around 260 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in Northern NSW and 190 on the Mid North Coast and, according to Cancer Institute NSW figures. The techniques evaluated include hypofractionation (treating in fewer sessions), intensity- modulated radiation therapy (highly targeted) and treating women in the prone (face down) position.

“These new techniques are able to substantially reduce the side-effects of treatment, in particular, prone breast positioning is beneficial as radiation is distributed evenly and accurately, limiting exposure to the rest of the body.

“The combination of these three techniques has been in use at the MNCCI and NCCI since 2012, and we were one of the first centres in Australia to adopt this method.”

The evaluation followed 155 patients from the Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour and Lismore areas who were treated using this technique, and the results were excellent.

“Our report is the first of its kind in Australia, and only the second publication of its kind in the world,” A/Prof Shakespeare said.

“We report on outcomes five years after radiation therapy. In our evaluation no patient had a cancer recurrence in the treated breast. We also found that no patient had significant side effects, and all evaluated patients rated their cosmetic outcome as good or excellent.”

The outcomes after using this technique have been published in the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists’ Journal of Medical Imaging and Radiation Oncology.

The Northern NSW Local Health District invested $25.3 million in Cancer Services across the region in 2019-20.