Overview -Samsung Medical Center opened in 1994 and has led the changes in Korea’s medical world covering all fields including diagnosis and treatment, studies, education and medical services, earning recognition from people as Korea’s representative hospital, one worthy of its reputation. In connection with this, the hospital in 2012 proclaimed Happinnovation 20*20 with a determination to realize a second takeoff, and making efforts to become a global top-level medical institution.
During the past 20 years, the Samsung Medical Center has received much love and encouragement and has won first place in the National Customer Satisfaction Index (NCSI) 14 times, first place in the Korean Customer Satisfaction Index (KCSI) 16 times. first place in the Korean Standard – Service Quality Index (KS-SQI) 12 times consecutively, and has been selected as the top medical center in the hospital sector in Brand Star 12 times consecutively.
Samsung Medical Center plans to achieve medical innovation in the future to promote the happiness of patients and will develop into a global hub of biohealth care study and link the industry by connecting to hospital-R&D Center-school and enterprises. At the same time, the Samsung Medical Center will create the image of a new future hospital as a public medical institution that leads social contribution.
Samsung Medical Center, composed of a main building, annex and cancer hospital, improves infrastructure for future development. The Proton center was completed in 2014, and construction continues with a target to complete the future medicine hall in 2015 and Ilwon Station building in 2016, and the foundation work for the outpatient treatment center, scheduled to be completed in 2019, has already started on the west side site. By 2020, when the expansion of all infrastructure is completed, wards, surgery rooms, the intensive care unit, proton treatment center, and the future medical hall designed for research will be located on the main campus of the Samsung Medical Center. The west side site will house the outpatient treatment center, and the Ilwon Station building will house the college of medicine, research center and training center, creating the largest and best domestic medical complex covering all fields of treatment, research and training on a super-special site measuring 578,512.4㎡ in floor area.
Oncology at Samsung Medical Center
Sub-Specialities – Hemato-oncology
Procedures – Mohs Surgery, Prostatectomy
Treatments – Brachytherapy, Chemotherapy, Gene Therapy, Hormonal Therapy, Image Guided RadioSurgery, Image Guided Radiotherapy, Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy, Photodynamic Therapy, Radiotherapy, Stem Cell Cancer Treatment, Streotactic Body Radiation Therapy, Targeted Therapies, Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy
Conditions – Bladder Cancer, Bone Cancer, Brain Cancer, Brain Tumor, Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Colon Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Endometrial Cancer, Gastric Cancer, Kidney Cancer, Leukemia, Liver Cancer, Lung Cancr, Lymphoma, Melanoma, Mesothelioma, Metastitic Cancer, Mouth Cancer, Neuroblastoma, Oral Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Retinoblastoma, Sarcoma, Skin Cancer, Testicular Cancer, Throat Cancer, Thyroid Cancer, Uterine Cancer
Strong points – Application of various up-to-date treatment methods
1. Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and four-dimensional respiration-gated radiation therapy (RGRT)
The Department of Radiation Oncology at the Samsung Medical Center actively uses various treatment plan images, including CT, MRI, and PET-CT to precisely configure the target volume to treat, and has installed, and is running an MRI machine to plan radiotherapy treatment in the proton center. Also, for tumors that are affected by respiration such as those of the lung and liver, we use four-dimensional CT and devices dedicated to four-dimensional radiotherapy, such as Varian iX and Novalis TX, to minimize treatment errors.
2. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT)
This is a method to irradiate a small target with large amounts of radiation from various directions by precise alignment of the target using a three-dimensional co-ordination system. The Department of Radiation Oncology at the Samsung Medical Center uses the Novalis TX system, a device dedicated to stereotactic body radiation therapy, to actively treat lung cancer, liver cancer, and spinal cancer.
3. Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT)
Intensity-modulated radiation therapy is a “customized radiation therapy” that fractionates and controls the intensity of individual surfaces to be irradiated to minimize the irradiation of normal tissue and to selectively irradiate cancerous tissue. In the Department of Radiation Oncology at the Samsung Medical Center, we not only have intensity-modulated radiation therapy using linear accelerators, but also the TomoTherapy and RapidArc systems dedicated for this use.
4. Proton therapy
The proton therapy device accelerates protons, the nucleus of the hydrogen atom, using a cylindrical accelerator (cyclotron) to destroy cancer tissue, and is known as the “cancer treatment dream device.” The proton beam passes through the body without affecting normal tissue and delivers its maximum energy to the tumor tissue and then dissipates. Proton therapy can be applied to all types of cancers that are indicated by conventional X-ray treatments, and even though it is more effective than conventional radiotherapy, it has fewer complications.
The Samsung Medical Center plans to begin proton therapy by the end of 2015, and also plans to fit cutting-edge treatment support devices, other than the rotational irradiation proton therapy system. These include a respiratory-gated proton therapy system which follows and treats tumors that move on respiration, an intensity-modulated proton therapy (IMPT) system, and cone beam real-time computed tomography, which confirms a tumor just before treatment using a specially designed CT scan.
The Department of Radiation Oncology at the Samsung Medical Center has treated more than 50,000 new cases as of April 2015 since its first treatment in August 1994. It provides the best treatment for various tumors based on a multi-disciplinary approach through each type of cancer center. They provide not only conventional radiotherapy, but also high-level radiotherapy, including image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT), respiration-gated radiation therapy (RGRT), stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT), and intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). Also, we will be equipped with a proton therapy facility at the end of 2015 to position ourselves as a hub for cancer treatment not only in Korea but also internationally.
- Languages : Korean, English