Vinmec Cancer Center - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital

Officially established on January 19, 2015, the Department of Radiation Oncology at Vinmec Times City International Hospital has traversed a decade of continuous development and maturity. Today, the entire department is operated and managed under the rigorous guidelines of the prestigious Joint Commission International (JCI) standards. To date, the center has successfully delivered safe and precise treatments to over 1,800 patients, totaling nearly 45,000 radiation therapy sessions with absolute accuracy.

With the core mission of optimizing therapeutic efficacy and personalizing treatment plans, 100% of cases at the center undergo comprehensive review by the multidisciplinary Molecular Tumor Board (MTB) prior to initiation of therapy. The MTB consolidates the collective expertise of leading specialists across various disciplines, including surgical oncology, medical oncology (chemotherapy/immunotherapy), radiation oncology, diagnostic imaging, and pathology. 

Here, every case is analyzed from a holistic, multi-dimensional perspective, integrating the latest international guidelines and evidence-based protocols from world-renowned organizations such as NCCN, ASTRO, ESMO, and ESTRO. This collaborative framework ensures consensus on the most optimal, safe, and scientifically proven treatment decisions for each patient.

Leveraging exceptional resources from a team of elite physicians, clinical oncologists, experienced medical physicists, and radiation therapists, Vinmec Times City has emerged as a premier reference center trusted by both patients and the medical community. At our facility:

• Over 90% of patients gain access to the world’s most advanced radiation therapy techniques.
• Over 95% of clients report a 5-star care experience following their treatment course.

Beyond clinical excellence, the center has established a pioneering role in academic research, with over 50 scientific papers published in high-impact international peer-reviewed journals, such as Annals of Oncology and Journal of Thoracic Oncology, as well as abstract presentations at prestigious global congresses like ESMO Asia.

Advanced Radiation Therapy Techniques: From Core to Specialized

• 3D Conformal Radiation Therapy (3D-CRT): Utilizes CT simulation data to reconstruct tumors and healthy organs in a three-dimensional space. The radiation beams are shaped to precisely conform to the geometric outline of the tumor, providing significantly better protection for surrounding healthy tissues compared to conventional 2D techniques.
• Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT): Breeds a single large radiation beam into hundreds of smaller beamlets and dynamically modulates the intensity of each individual beamlet. This technique optimizes high-dose delivery to tumors with complex geometric shapes while minimizing the dose to adjacent critical organs at risk.
• Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT): A revolutionary advancement of IMRT delivered in continuous arcs. The linear accelerator rotates around the patient (in one or multiple arcs) while simultaneously adjusting its gantry speed, dose rate, and the dynamic movement of the multi-leaf collimators (MLCs). VMAT delivers an optimal dose distribution comparable to IMRT but significantly reduces the beam-on time (typically to just 2 to 3 minutes).
• Image Guided Radiation Therapy (IGRT): Prior to each treatment session, the system performs a cone-beam CT (CBCT) or 2D kV imaging to compare directly with the original planning reference images. Any setup variations or internal anatomical shifts (due to respiration, organ motion, or patient positioning) are automatically corrected through smart couch shifts, ensuring absolute mechanical and geometric accuracy.
• Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART): Throughout a multi-week course of treatment, tumors may shrink or patients may experience weight loss, leading to alterations in internal anatomy. The ART system allows for repeating verification imaging, re-calculating doses, and generating an updated treatment plan mid-course to match the patient’s real-time anatomy.
• Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT): Advanced techniques delivering ultra-high ablative doses in a hypofractionated schedule with sub-millimeter precision.
  • SRS: Indicated for intracranial lesions, destroying the target volume in a single fraction using an intense dose of radiation.
  • SBRT: Applied to extracranial tumors (lung, liver, prostate, etc.), delivering high doses within 1 to 5 fractions, achieving local control rates comparable to radical surgical resection.
• Respiratory-Gated Radiation Therapy (4D-RT & Gating): Tracks the patient’s respiratory cycle in real-time (the 4th dimension). In respiratory gating, the linear accelerator only delivers radiation during specific phases of the breathing cycle when the tumor enters a pre-defined window (where tumor motion is minimal) and automatically pauses beam delivery when the target moves out of this safe zone.
• Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) and End-Expiratory Breath Hold (EEBH): Active patient-coordinated breathing techniques designed to immobilize target motion.
  • DIBH: The patient takes a deep breath and holds it to expand the thoracic volume. This is routinely used in left-sided breast cancer to distance the heart from the radiation field, or in lung/esophageal cancers to reduce tumor displacement and decrease the volume of irradiated healthy lung tissue.
  • EEBH: The patient holds their breath at the end of a natural exhalation, immobilizing tumors in the upper abdomen or thorax in a stable, highly reproducible anatomical state across multiple treatment fractions.

Technical Advantages & Toxicity Control by Anatomical Site

Central Nervous System (Brain Tumors)

• Enables precise treatment of tumors located adjacent to critical neurological structures (including brainstem tumors) while maximizing normal brain tissue sparing.
• Utilizes hippocampal-sparing techniques to significantly minimize the incidence of radiation-induced memory decline.

Head and Neck Cancers

• Minimizes secondary radiation dose to the salivary glands, spinal cord, and other critical organs at risk (OARs).
• Optimally preserves the patient's vital functional activities, including eating, speaking, and swallowing.

Lung Cancer

• Provides stringent tracking and management of respiratory-induced tumor motion, reducing the cumulative dose to the heart and healthy lung parenchyma.
• For early-stage disease, Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT) delivers an optimal definitive treatment solution for patients who are medically inoperable or decline surgery.

Breast Cancer

• Employs Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) to significantly decrease radiation exposure to the myocardium and coronary arteries, offering crucial biological protection, particularly in left-sided breast cancer treatment.

Esophageal Cancer

• Combines Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) with active breath-hold management (DIBH) to effectively isolate mobile lesions along the length of the esophagus.
• Maximizes the sparing of healthy lung volume and cardiac structures.
• Demonstrates excellent control over severe treatment-related complications, such as radiation esophagitis and pneumonitis.

Abdominal Cancers (Liver, Pancreas, etc.)

• Applies End-Expiration Breath Hold (EEBH) paired with enhanced beam precision to stabilize the anatomical position of the liver, pancreas, and other mobile intra-abdominal organs.
• This superior accuracy allows clinicians to safely escalate the radiation dose to the tumor (including the utilization of SBRT) while protecting surrounding intestinal structures from damage.

Pelvic Cancers (Rectum, Uterus, Cervix, Prostate)

• Conforms and optimizes the dose distribution, concentrating it strictly within the target volume deep inside the pelvic cavity.
• Minimizes radiation exposure to adjacent organs, specifically the bladder, rectum, and small bowel.
• Reduces the rates of acute and chronic complications within the gastrointestinal and genitourinary systems.

Palliative Radiotherapy

• Precisely targets symptom-causing lesions to achieve rapid pain relief, hemostasis (bleeding control), and decompression caused by local tumor invasion or distant metastases (bone and soft tissue).
• Yields a high and rapid clinical response rate.
• Actively improves the quality of life (QoL) for patients with advanced or progressive disease.

Clinical Outcomes & Treatment Efficacy by Disease Site

Brain Lesions (Brain Metastases)

• Technique: Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS).
• Clinical Efficacy:
  • 1-year local control rate of brain lesions reaches 80% for the SRS group.
  • Median Overall Survival (OS) is 21.1 months.

Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma (Definitive Radiotherapy)

• Technique: Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy with Simultaneous Integrated Boost (VMAT-SIB).
• Clinical Efficacy:
  • Treatment completion rate reaches 97%.
  • Overall Response Rate (ORR) is 97%, with a Complete Response (CR) rate of 69,7%.
• Long-term Survival:
  • Overall Survival (OS): 95.2% at 3 years / 77.4% at 5 years.
  • Progression-Free Survival (PFS): 85.5% at 3 years / 68.4% at 5 years.
  • Toxicity & Side Effects: Severe acute toxicity (Grade 3) is rare (mucositis: 15.2%, dermatitis: 12.1%). Late toxicities are predominantly mild (Grade 1-2), including xerostomia/dry mouth (90.9%) and dysgeusia/taste alteration (66.7%).

Esophageal Cancer (Preoperative / Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy)

• Technique: VMAT combined with Deep Inspiration Breath Hold (DIBH) for active motion management.
• Clinical Efficacy:
  • Chemoradiotherapy protocol completion rate reaches 94,2%.
  • R0 resection (microscopically negative margins) rate reaches 100%.
  • Pathological Complete Response (pCR) rate reaches 46.7%.
  • 2-Year Survival: Overall Survival (OS) is 72.2% and Progression-Free Survival (PFS) is 68.4%.
  • Toxicity & Complications: Grade ≥2 esophagitis accounts for 60%, postoperative anastomotic stricture occurs in 6.7%, and radiation pneumonitis remains low at 2.9%.

Breast Cancer

• Technique: Hypofractionated Radiotherapy.
• Clinical Efficacy: Demonstrates optimal local control; as of 2025, no cases of in-field recurrence have been recorded
• Advantages: Significantly reduces treatment time and medical costs for patients.
• Toxicity: High safety profile with 0% Grade 3 dermatitis. Other adverse effects remain low: subcutaneous telangiectasia (18.9%), dull breast pain (5.7%), and Grade ≥2 radiation pneumonitis accounts for only 3.8%.

Rectal Cancer (Neoadjuvant Chemoradiotherapy for Locally Advanced Stages)

• Technique: VMAT concurrent with chemotherapy.
• Patient Characteristics: 100% of patients presented with lymph node metastasis, with the majority at locally advanced stages (T3-4/N2 accounting for 96.8%).
• Clinical Efficacy:
  • Clinical Partial Response (cPR) rate is 90,3%.
  • Pathological Complete Response (pCR) rate is 6.5%.
  • Provides optimal downstaging for surgery, successfully achieving sphincter preservation in 61.3% of patients.

Prostate Cancer

• Technique: Simultaneous Integrated Boost VMAT (SIB-VMAT) to the gross tumor volume (GTV) guided by PET-PSMA and multiparametric MRI (mpMRI).
• Clinical Efficacy: Initial implementation shows highly favorable outcomes with no recurrences recorded to date.
• Toxicity: Extremely low toxicity profile; only mild radiation cystitis/urethritis (Grade 1-2) has been reported, with zero gastrointestinal (rectal) toxicities.

Bone Lesions (Palliative Radiation Therapy for Bone Metastases)

• Technique: Conventional Radiotherapy or Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT).
• Clinical Efficacy: Overall pain response rate reaches 91.4% (with a Complete Response rate of 25.7%).
• SBRT Advantage: Patients treated with SBRT achieved an outstanding complete pain relief rate of 45.5%.