Consultation hours are Monday to Friday from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm.

To make an appointment or if you have any other questions, you can reach us by telephone (or by e-mail at Strahlentherapie.Ambulanz@mh-hannover.de) during the above-mentioned times at the following telephone numbers:

0511 / 532-3590 and 532-3591.

You will find us in building K07, level H0 (see map).

If you come to us as a new patient, an initial consultation will take place during our consultation hours. Please register in room 1 first (even if you have already been a patient with us and are presenting yourself again).

We ask you to bring your health insurance card and a current referral with you both for the first appointment and for a repeat appointment.

Before we initiate any preparatory or therapeutic measures, we will first conduct a detailed initial consultation with you, which is also known as an informative consultation, in order to get to know you personally and the course of your illness.

As a rule, we will have already received your medical records before this consultation, so that we are aware of your medical history. If you have any other documents - such as recent x-rays or physician's letters - we would ask you to bring them with you to the initial consultation so that we can plan your treatment quickly and optimally.

The aim of the initial consultation is to provide you with comprehensive information about the radiotherapeutic aspects of your clinical picture. We will discuss the possible course of treatment and the treatment goal with you. Of course, you will also be informed about possible acute and chronic side effects of radiotherapy and treatment alternatives.
During the initial consultation, we will also take your medical history. This means that we will ask you personally about the course of your illness and examine you physically in relation to your illness.

We will record what is important for you and us during the consultation on a so-called information sheet. If you agree to undergo radiotherapy, we will need a signed declaration of consent in order to begin treatment planning.

The aim of the initial consultation goes far beyond its medical nature.
You can tell us in detail about your fears, worries and concerns. There is no question that should not be asked. On the contrary: it is your questions, suggestions and wishes that enable us to create atreatment plan that is tailored to you . If you feel unsure at first, we will be happy to conduct the initial consultation in the presence of someone you trust. This also gives you the advantage of being able to work through the conversation with your confidant in peace.

We are also there for you at any time if you have questions, uncertainties, problems or even complaints that have only arisen in the course of your therapy. Please do not hesitate to contact us, because the sooner you speak to us, the faster and better we can understand your problem and solve it together with you.

If you decide to start radiotherapy after clarifying all your questions, the planning phase follows.

As part of radiation planning, we will determine your personal radiation parameters (including total and individual dose, duration of treatment, detailed determination of the target volume of radiation therapy). The aim is to achieve the best possible target volume - and therefore treatment of the underlying disease - while sparing the surrounding healthy tissue in order to minimize the risk of treatment-related side effects.

Various modern methods of high-precision radiotherapy are available for this purpose (see "Special treatment techniques").
Which of these methods is used for you personally will be decided on an individual basis. The same method is not the best for all situations. As a rule, you will first be given an appointment for a planning CT scan as part of the radiotherapy planning process. This CT scan will also take place in our Clinical Department for Radiotherapy, so that you will not have to make any further visits to other physicians.

With the help of this computer tomography, we can visualize the area of the body affected by the planned radiotherapy in three dimensions. This planning step enables us to define both the volume to be irradiated and the surrounding healthy tissue. This data is then used by our medical physics experts, who have undergone special training in the field of medical physics, to calculate the exact irradiation parameters that are medically most favorable for you in order to enable the aforementioned high-precision irradiation.

 

Before the radiation treatment, you register at the service point with your green card and take a seat in the waiting area. You will then be called over the loudspeaker and can then go to the radiation machine. One of our medical-technical radiology assistants (MTRA) will then accompany you to the radiation room.

After the radiation treatment, you will go back to the service point. There you will receive the green appointment card with the next appointments. If you have any appointment requests, perhaps because you have an important appointment, please let us know at the service point in good time so that we can accommodate your appointment requests.

The first radiation treatment has a special status. We meticulously check both the settings of the radiation equipment and the positioning of the patient to ensure that the treatment is carried out exactly as planned. For this reason, the first radiation treatment takes between 20 and 30 minutes.

To enable easy visual control of the radiation field, we will mark the radiation field with a special skin-friendly pen. It is particularly important that you do not wash off these markings during the entire radiation series - otherwise it may be necessary to repeat the procedures of the first radiation treatment.

If we have planned radiotherapy for you in the head and neck area, we will make a soft plastic mask beforehand. With this mask, we guarantee precise irradiation by ensuring that you are positioned particularly still during irradiation. Furthermore, you do not need any markings on the skin - the markings remain "in the Clinical Department" with the mask.

After successful initial radiotherapy, we will usually irradiate you 4 - 5 times a week on weekdays.

The routine radiotherapy sessions after the first radiotherapy session do not usually take as long as the initial treatment (see above). However, we will also carry out regular imaging checks during the radiation series to ensure precise therapy (the frequency of these checks depends on the individual circumstances - but at least once a week).

There are several lamps in the radiation room that emit a red laser light. This light is completely harmless to you. It is only used to check your position on the radiation table.

During the actual irradiation, which usually takes about 5 - 20 minutes, you will be alone in the irradiation room for a short time. However, you can speak to us at any time via an intercom system. A video system allows us to observe you during the entire radiation treatment so that we can interrupt the radiation treatment at any time if you feel unwell or have any other problems.

You cannot feel the radiation we use for radiotherapy with your senses. Radiation is not painful. Nevertheless, radiotherapy can also be accompanied by side effects. A distinction is made between fast-reacting and slow-reacting organs. The skin and mucous membranes in particular belong to the fast-reacting organs.

Even before therapy begins, we will give you comprehensive instructions on Nursing and protecting the skin and mucous membranes. We are one of the few radiotherapy Clinical Departments in Germany to offer you a special outpatient care clinic to familiarize you with skin and mucous membrane care. Specially trained specialists for oncological Nursing will accompany you during the course of your radiation treatment with us.

We also focus on ensuring your care at home and initiating rehabilitation measures after you have completed your radiation treatment. Please contact us in good time before completing your treatment, as it can take up to two weeks for an application to be approved by the health insurance company.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us directly. For this reason, the physicians responsible for the radiation equipment are available at all times.

We try to keep each radiotherapy session as short as possible, so that each session lasts around 30 - 45 minutes including a waiting time. If, for medical or technical reasons, you have to wait longer than 15 minutes, we ask for your understanding.

The duration of treatment varies greatly from person to person and depends, among other things, on your illness as well as other aspects that are not necessarily directly related to radiotherapy.

The treatment can last a few days or in some cases up to several weeks.

If you have any questions about this during your treatment, we can provide you with comprehensive information at the radiation machine from the medical-technical radiology assistants (MTRA) working there or from the physician at any time.

After your last radiation treatment, we have already had a detailed final consultation with you. We have already discussed your individual aftercare plan with you, in which your treating oncologist and your family physician are involved. We may also have informed you about any additional behavioral measures that may be necessary.

Under certain circumstances, radiotherapy can beaccompanied by negative side effects, which intensify a few days after the end of radiotherapy before they finally subside.

We usually arrange an appointment in three months for a check-up in our Department. During these follow-up appointments, a clinical examination is carried out and the course of the disease is discussed.

After radiotherapy, chronic, sometimes irreversible treatment consequences can often occur after years of latency. This is a special feature of radiotherapy. For this reason, a radiotherapeutic follow-up examination ("review") is necessary and prescribed by law in parallel to the tumor follow-up with your responsible specialist, even if re-registration with the respective radiotherapist may be sufficient in certain cases.

The results of the radiotherapy follow-up will be noted in a special passport, which will be given to you at the first follow-up (usually after 3 months, see above).

If existing complaints worsen or new complaints arise in the radiation area, you can also contact us immediately (Tel.: 0511 / 532-3590), regardless of your next follow-up appointment, so that we can deal with your complaints immediately.

• As soon as you start radiotherapy, you will receive the exact time of the next radiotherapy appointments on a green appointment card. There is also a barcode on this card. This security feature enables us to clearly identify you and prevent mix-ups. Therefore, please bring this card with you to every visit and inform us immediately if you lose it.

• During the course of radiotherapy, it may be necessary to check your blood count regularly, for example if you are also receiving chemotherapy. In these cases, we ask you to have your blood count checked by your family physician. Your GP will receive all the necessary documents from us to carry out regular blood count checks.

• If your radiotherapy extends beyond one quarter (January 1 / April 1 / July 1 / October 1), we will need a new referral from you and your health insurance card.