Cancer Services

Links to information and contacts for our cancer services and clinics.

Where to find this service

Sunshine Hospital

Footscray Hospital

Bacchus Marsh Hospital

Melton Health Hub

Sunbury Community Hospital

Sunshine Hospital Radiation Therapy Centre

Western Health’s cancer service is the largest care provider for people with cancer across the wider Western region.

Sunshine Hospital (SH) is the primary cancer services hub, providing up to 20 inpatient beds on a shared ward. Patients with cancer are also admitted at Footscray, Williamstown and BMM Regional Hospital for surgical procedures.

Chemotherapy is provided at Sunshine Chemotherapy Day Unit (CDU), Melton Health Day Medical Unit and Sunbury Day Hospital (SDH). Furthermore, SH offers Oncology Hospital in the Home (HITH) and Radiation Therapy at Sunshine Hospital Radiation Therapy Centre (SHRTC), which is a service partnership with Peter McCallum Cancer Centre.

Emergency care is provided to cancer patients presenting at Sunshine, Footscray, Williamstown Emergency Departments (ED) and Bacchus Marsh and Melton Health Urgent Care. Sunshine Hospital also operates a Symptom Urgent Review Clinic (SURC),via the CDU, providing an alternative avenue to the ED to access acute specialised care for patients on chemotherapy.

WH provides inpatient palliative care at Sunshine Hospital with 20 dedicated palliative care beds. Regional Community Palliative Care is serviced by Bacchus Marsh Community Palliative Care Team.

Cancer Services outpatient services are available at Sunshine, Footscray, Sunbury and Melton Health.

Several key support services are involved in delivering care for cancer patients at Western Health. The Medical Imaging department provides imaging and interventional radiology services for patients with cancer. Additionally, the Western Health Pharmacy Department provides a chemotherapy compounding service at Sunshine Hospital, which is outsourced for Sunbury Day Hospital and Melton Health to Baxter and Slade, respectively.

Treatment planning plays an integral role in supporting positive outcomes from cancer care. Western Health cancer services operate high-quality tumour-specific multidisciplinary meetings(MDM), optimising treatment and management planning. Input occurs from multiple clinicians across relevant clinical specialities, including medical, radiation and surgical oncology, radiology, pathology, allied health and nursing.

What we do

Western Health provides Cancer Services for patients of the Western Region of Melbourne. Providing:

Acute inpatient services including medical oncology, haematology, chemotherapy and surgery
Subacute inpatient palliative care
Research and clinical trials
Symptom and Urgent Review Clinic (SURC)
Non-admitted services, including specialist clinics and radiotherapy
Community Palliative Care
Oncology Hospital in the Home (HITH) (provision of chemotherapy in the patient’s home)
Allied Health support

Cancer Services Partnerships:

Peter Mac - WH partner with Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) to provide radiation oncology service at SHRTC.

Mercy Palliative Care (MPC) - WH partners with a range of community palliative care providers, including MPC. WH and MPC partner to provide essential end-of-life support and symptom management to a large portion of Western Health patients receiving cancer care.

Through patient-centred models, MPC provide community palliative care services in patients’ own homes, while WH operate inpatient palliative care at Sunshine and the multidisciplinary Symptom Management and Referral Team (SMART) clinics at Footscray and Sunshine campuses.

VCCC Alliance - Western Health is a member of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre Alliance (VCCC). The VCCC uses an integrated and innovative approach to cancer research, clinical trials, education and patient care in Victoria, with the aim to translate research into practice and advance quality clinical care.

Western Health is also part of the West Metropolitan Health Service Partnership (Mercy Health, Royal Women’s Hospital, Royal Children’s Hospital, Peter Mac and Melbourne Health) and the Western Central Melbourne Integrated Cancer Services (WCMICS) as well as North and West Metropolitan Palliative Care Consortium and Grampians Region Palliative Care Consortium.

Cancers treated at Western Health:

Breast Cancer Service – include Breast Cancer CNCs

Colorectal Cancer Service

Genito-Urinary Cancer Service – include Prostate CNCs

General Oncology Service

Gynae-Oncology Cancer Service

Haematology Cancer Service

Lung Cancer Service – include Lung Cancer CNCs

Skin Cancer

SMART Clinic

Thyroid Tumours

Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancer Service