Wielkopolskie Centrum Onkologii

The WCO Greater Poland Cancer Centre, established in 1953, is one of the biggest oncology centres in Poland and Europe. Its basic task is providing specialist heath care for people afflicted with cancerous diseases. The centre provides medical service in the field of oncological surgery, head and neck cancer surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, gynaecological oncology, anaesthesiology and intensive care, brachytherapy and diagnostics. Additionally, the centre conducts many actions aimed at health promotion and neoplastic diseases prevention. Each year, the centre hospitalises 18,000 patients, 5,600 operations and 8,000 ambulatory procedures are performed. Annually, over 7,000 patients undergo radiotherapy treatment (along with brachytherapy), 4,400 patients – system treatment (chemotherapy), and almost 11,000 patients – ambulatory chemotherapy treatment. We have over 160000 annual outpatient visitsyearly.

The centre occupies several buildings, and the oldest of them dates back to the mid-19th century (historical building) and the youngest to 2009. All buildings are modernised and satisfy West-European standards. Two affiliates in Kalisz and Piła are under construction, and next two will be constructed in Konin and Leszno. The affiliates are financed within the long-standing investment plan of Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, implementation of which will assure availability of public medical services in Wielkopolska by the year 2015.     

The WCO centre has two radiotherapy departments and is a famous centre of treatment with the use of the radiotherapy and brachytherapy method, through application of modern ionization radiation technologies for medical purposes. Currently, the centre has at its disposal 8 state-of-the-art irradiation accelerators, including Poland’s only apparatus for tomotherapy. Tomotherapy consists in irradiation by means of a neoplastic changes accelerator with maximum saving of healthy tissues. This is of key importance to keeping the quality of life after oncological treatment. The tomotherapy accelerator, which is a combination of accelerator and tomograph, facilitates precise irradiation of big, complicated areas of tissues with very high accuracy. Additionally, the centre was the first in Poland to start treatment of prostate gland cancer by means of brachytherapy, with the use of permanent seed implants (LDR permanent implants).

The centre’s modern Nuclear Medicine Department is one of few in Poland to have the PET/CT apparatus, which facilitates detection of a very early stadium of cancerous processes and precise location of metastases. The Nuclear Medicine Department and the Second Radiotherapy Department were financed from the EU resources within the Integrated Regional Development Operational Program.

In the field of surgical treatment, WCO has a modern operating suite with six operating rooms, equipped with, among others, an accelerator for intraoperative radiotherapy. This method is used mainly in patients suffering from breast and alimentary tract cancers. This form of therapy facilitates direct irradiation of bad tissues with a focused dose, which decreases the incidence of local recurrences. Poland’s first Mammotome Biopsy Laboratory was opened in 2000. At its disposal the laboratory has a stereotactic mammotome apparatus, which facilitates ambulatory, mini-invasive, with local anaesthesia, collection of diagnostic material from non-palpable changes in breasts, detected with the use of a mammograph.

The centre also has a modern department for the treatment of head and neck cancers. It conducts interdisciplinary treatment of cancers, which due to their difficult location goes beyond the limits of one medical specialisation.

Following the West-European model, the centre features interdisciplinary teams providing holistic care for patients with cancers in a given location, e.g. a team providing care for patients with breast cancers, cancers in the upper part of the alimentary tract, larynx cancers. These teams include first of all physicians of different specialisations, psychologists, physical therapists, nurses, and supporting workers, e.g. a social worker or a dietician. Meetings of teams are held at least once a week.

Keeping in mind patients, employees and students, WCO has established its Didactic and Conference Centre. Numerous didactic classes for students of the Poznań University of Medical Sciences and other universities are organised in the centre’s seminar and auditorium rooms (capacity: 30-120 persons). Additionally, the centre initiates and organises numerous trainings, scientific conferences and symposia for Polish and foreign medicine people. Modern infrastructure facilitates organisation of trainings – 120-seat auditorium room with modern multimedia equipment, e.g. a sound and video system for communication with operating rooms and for live broadcast from operating rooms. Such a training form facilitates effective pre- and postgraduate education.

Keeping patients in mind, the centre conducts activities supporting therapy, e.g. art therapy, occupational therapy, numerous music concerts, and feature film shows.

A great relaxation space for our patients is the air-conditioned Winter Garden on the ground floor combined with the Pomarańczarnia Cafe and the partially historical, 19th-century Cegielski Office, which was renovated and adapted for the needs of the administrations.

The introduction of IT in the centre has practically been finished, and the process of changing the paper documentation system into an e-system. Patients can make appointments through the Internet. The Qmatic system controls the waiting time in the outpatient clinic.

The centre is the head office of four recognised scientific magazines: ”Współczesna Onkologia” (contemporary oncology) (editor – professor Andrzej Mackiewicz), ”Reports of Practical Oncology and Radiotherapy” (editor – professor Julian Malicki), ”Zeszyty Naukowe Wielkopolskiego Centrum Onkologii” (scientific notebooks of the Greater Poland Cancer Centre) (editor – professor Julian Malicki), and ”Journal of Contemporary Brachytherapy” (editor – Janusz Skowronek, PhD).