Canberra Hospital's cancer centre will be able to increase its capacity for radiation therapy treatment as the last of four new state-of-the-art machines has been installed.
A five-year replacement program has been completed with the final linear accelerator machine ready.
The machine, known as a LINAC, is able to provide target radiation therapy to patients and can drastically shorten the treatment time for those undergoing cancer treatment.
Canberra Health Services director of radiation therapy Martin Seng said the machines could bring down treatment times from eight weeks to only two or three treatments as it was able to better target cancerous cells.
"With every new iteration of a linear accelerator what it allows is for the previsions to get more and more targeted ... all of our machines allow us to go down to the millimetre, even sub-millimetre accuracy," he said.
"Why that's important is because the more targeted we can be, the less healthy tissue we can treat and we can escalate the dose to these patients because we're treating such less healthy tissue."
Four machines have been replaced at the Canberra Region Cancer Centre since 2019. It takes about six to nine months to set up a new machine.
Mr Seng said during the replacement period they had been treating patients using only three machines, but the installation of the fourth would allow the centre to increase its capacity.
"During the replacement program we've been able to treat as many patients using three linear accelerators compared to the initial four and now moving forward to four LINACs we're able to increase our capacity, treating even more patients in the territory," he said.
The machines need to be replaced every 10 years to keep up to date with new technology developments. The first of the four machines was replaced in 2019.
"These are the most sophisticated machines that are out there in the medical world and a lot can change in 10 years so it's important that we replace them to make them more reliable but also so we can utilise all the latest technology and deliver even more precise treatments," Mr Seng said.
The program was funded by the Commonwealth's radiation oncology program grants, with $12 million given. The ACT government provided an extra $6.4 million towards the new machines.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the multi-million dollar machines would provide "top-of-the-line radiation therapy".
"The completion of this program marks the end of an incredibly complex and delicate process," she said.
"For some patients, these new LINACs will mean shorter treatment courses as larger doses can be delivered in a safer, more precise way. This has the potential to improve wait times, with more patients being treated in a shorter timeframe."
ACT senator Katy Gallagher said people in the ACT and the surrounding region would benefit from the new machine.
"I know a lot of work goes into getting a LINAC up and running. Commissioned, decommissioned," she said.
"All of the training that has to happen, it's a lot of work. It's great that we've been able to get it open."
