Treating Cancer, the specialist radiation oncology practice led by Dr Prinitha Pillay in Johannesburg, has set out in plain terms the treatment options it offers and the information it makes available to patients and their families. As the last quarter of 2026 begins, the practice is drawing attention to the sections of its website that explain how radiation treatment is planned and delivered, and to the reference library it keeps for people who want to read more between appointments.

The practice describes itself as a comprehensive cancer care service. On its own website it lists chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, brachytherapy and hyperthermia among the treatment options available through the rooms. Dr Pillay is listed as a Specialist radiation oncologist with the qualifications BSc Hons (Wits), MBBCh (Wits), MSc (LSHTM), MMed (Wits) and FC Rad Onc (SA), and the practice number given on the site is PR0876046.

The practice also sets out the range of tumour groups it works with. Its published list covers bone, breast, dermatological, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, ocular, paediatric, thoracic, neurological, head and neck, and genitourinary oncologies. Publishing that list openly is a small thing, but it matters to a family sitting with a referral letter and no clear idea of whether a particular practice deals with the diagnosis in front of them.

Explaining how radiation treatment works

Much of the practice website is given over to describing the mechanics of treatment rather than promoting it. Radiation therapy is described there as high energy x-rays or electrons generated outside the body, usually by a linear accelerator, with those beams directed at the tumour site where they deposit their energy inside the body. It is written for a reader with no clinical background, and it stops short of promising anything about what any individual course of treatment will do.

From that starting point the site works through the techniques it uses. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy, or IMRT, is described as an advanced form of high accuracy radiotherapy in which the beam is shaped so that the dose is delivered to the tumour while the surrounding normal tissue is spared as far as possible. Image-guided radiation therapy, or IGRT, is described as producing a three-dimensional image of the actual patient and the position of the lesion on a daily basis, which the practice says allows a plan to be adjusted when a patient's anatomy changes over the course of a treatment programme.

Gated radiotherapy is described for tumours that move with the breath, in the lungs, liver and stomach, with the treatment beam coordinated with the patient's own breathing rhythm. Rapid Arc is described as delivery in a single 360 degree rotation around the patient. Stereotactic irradiation is described by the practice as a highly precise technique, with a stated position accuracy of one millimetre. Brachytherapy is described as the placement of radioactive material directly inside the body, either temporarily or permanently, depending on what the treating team plans.

None of that detail is offered as a recommendation. Which technique suits a particular person is a clinical decision made by a treating team with the full picture in front of it, and the practice presents the descriptions as background reading rather than as guidance. The point of publishing them, as the practice frames it, is that a patient who has already heard a word like brachytherapy in a consultation should be able to look it up somewhere calm and unhurried afterwards.

The people around the treatment

Radiation oncology is rarely a solo activity, and the practice is explicit that treatment is delivered by a multidisciplinary team. Alongside the doctor, the site names specialised nurses and a nutritionist who support the patient through the process. Nutrition in particular is often the practical problem a patient notices first, long before anything else, and having that support named on the website rather than left implied gives families a sense of who they will actually be dealing with week to week.

The practice describes its support as running from diagnosis through treatment and into the period afterwards, rather than ending when a course of treatment does. Post-treatment follow-up, side effect management and the slow business of returning to ordinary life are all part of what an oncologist and the surrounding team deal with, and the site is structured to reflect that rather than to stop at the treatment room door.

A reference library, not a sales page

One of the more unusual parts of the Treating Cancer website is its resources section, which points readers away from the practice rather than towards it. The clinical information listing directs patients, caregivers and health professionals to independent sources including OncoLink and Radiation Treatment Answers, along with international guideline bodies such as the NCCN in the United States, ESMO in Europe and Macmillan in the United Kingdom.

The South African support network listing is longer still. It gathers CANSA, the Cancer Alliance, Reach for Recovery, Bosom Buddies and a long tail of further organisations covering different diagnoses and different stages of survivorship. There is a dedicated section for adolescents and young adults that includes CHOC, the Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa, the Cancer Dojo application and Ari's Cancer Foundation. Geriatric guidelines are referenced separately through international geriatric oncology material, on the reasoning that an older patient's situation is not simply a younger patient's situation scaled down.

The library also carries material on access to medicines in resource-limited settings and on navigating the South African healthcare system, which is a quietly practical inclusion in a country where medical aid rules, public sector referral routes and out of pocket costs shape a great deal of what happens next. Further sections cover breast cancer in young women, genetic counselling, lymphoedema support and gender-affirming healthcare guidelines. The practice invites readers to write in and suggest resources it has missed, which suggests the page is meant to keep growing.

Access and hours

The practice publishes consulting hours of 7am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday. Cancer care does not organise itself neatly around office hours, and a wide daily window matters to people who are working, caring for children, travelling in from outside the city or simply trying to fit an appointment around a treatment cycle that leaves them tired at predictable times of the week. For anyone searching for an oncologist Johannesburg families can reach on a Saturday afternoon, published seven-day hours are a piece of information worth having up front.

Cancer care in South Africa is delivered across a wide mix of public and private settings, and the experience of finding one's way through it varies enormously. A practice that publishes its treatment list, its tumour groups, its team composition, its hours and a set of independent references is doing something modest but useful. It is reducing the number of questions a frightened person has to ask out loud before they can work out whether they are in the right place.

Readers who want the full detail can find it on the Treating Cancer website at https://treatingcancer.co.za.

About Treating Cancer

Treating Cancer is a specialist radiation oncology practice based in Johannesburg, South Africa, led by Dr Prinitha Pillay, a Specialist Radiation Oncologist holding BSc Hons (Wits), MBBCh (Wits), MSc (LSHTM), MMed (Wits) and FC Rad Onc (SA), practice number PR0876046. The practice offers chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, brachytherapy and hyperthermia, and works across bone, breast, dermatological, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, ocular, paediatric, thoracic, neurological, head and neck and genitourinary oncologies. Care is delivered by a multidisciplinary team that includes specialised nurses and a nutritionist, supporting patients from diagnosis through treatment and afterwards. Consulting hours are 7am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday.

Media Contact
Treating Cancer
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +27 66 272 6582
Website: https://treatingcancer.co.za