For a family holding a fresh referral letter, the hardest part is often just working out where to begin. Treating Cancer, the Johannesburg radiation oncology practice run by Dr Prinitha Pillay, has responded to that by laying out its treatment options and patient information in clear language. With the final quarter of 2026 under way, the practice is pointing people toward the parts of its website that walk through how radiation is planned and given, and toward the reference library it maintains for anyone who wants to read further between visits.
The rooms position themselves as a full cancer care service. The website itself names chemotherapy, radiation therapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy, stereotactic radiotherapy, brachytherapy and hyperthermia as the treatments handled there. Dr Pillay appears on the site as a Specialist radiation oncologist holding BSc Hons (Wits), MBBCh (Wits), MSc (LSHTM), MMed (Wits) and FC Rad Onc (SA), with a listed practice number of PR0876046.
Alongside the treatments, the practice publishes the tumour groups it handles. That list spans bone, breast, dermatological, gynaecological, gastrointestinal, musculoskeletal, ocular, paediatric, thoracic, neurological, head and neck, and genitourinary oncologies. Making that list public may seem minor, yet it means a good deal to a family unsure whether a given practice even deals with the diagnosis they have been handed.
Explaining how radiation treatment works
A large share of the site is devoted to describing how treatment actually functions rather than selling it. Radiation therapy is explained there as high energy x-rays or electrons produced outside the body, typically by a linear accelerator, with the beams aimed at the tumour site so their energy is deposited inside the body. The writing assumes no clinical knowledge, and it deliberately avoids any promise about what a given course of treatment will achieve.
From there the site moves through the specific techniques on offer. Intensity-modulated radiotherapy, or IMRT, is set out as an advanced, high accuracy form of radiotherapy in which the beam is shaped to concentrate dose on the tumour while sparing nearby healthy tissue as much as it can. Image-guided radiation therapy, or IGRT, is described as generating a daily three-dimensional image of the actual patient and where the lesion sits, which the practice says lets a plan be adjusted as a patient’s anatomy shifts over the course of treatment.
Gated radiotherapy is covered for tumours that shift as a person breathes, in the lungs, liver and stomach, with the beam timed to the patient’s own breathing. Rapid Arc is presented as delivery in one 360 degree rotation around the patient. Stereotactic irradiation is described by the practice as a highly precise approach, with a stated position accuracy of one millimetre. Brachytherapy is explained as placing radioactive material directly inside the body, either temporarily or permanently, according to the treating team’s plan.
None of this is put forward as advice. The choice of technique for any one person is a clinical judgement made by a treating team that has the whole picture, and the practice frames these descriptions as background reading rather than direction. As the rooms see it, the reason to publish them is so a patient who has already heard a term like brachytherapy in a consultation can look it up later, somewhere calm and without pressure.
The people around the treatment
Radiation oncology is seldom a one-person affair, and the practice states plainly that treatment comes from a multidisciplinary team. Besides the doctor, the site names specialised nurses and a nutritionist who help the patient through the course. Nutrition is frequently the first practical hurdle a patient runs into, well ahead of anything else, and naming that support on the site rather than leaving it unsaid gives families a clearer picture of who they will be working with week to week.
The practice frames its support as stretching from diagnosis through treatment and on into the time that follows, not stopping when a course ends. Follow-up after treatment, managing side effects and the gradual return to normal life all fall within what an oncologist and the wider team handle, and the site is built to mirror that rather than ending at the treatment room door.
A reference library, not a sales page
Among the more unusual features of the Treating Cancer site is its resources section, which sends readers outward rather than back to the practice. The clinical information listing steers patients, caregivers and health professionals toward independent sources such as OncoLink and Radiation Treatment Answers, together with international guideline bodies including the NCCN in the United States, ESMO in Europe and Macmillan in the United Kingdom.
The South African support network listing runs longer again. It brings together CANSA, the Cancer Alliance, Reach for Recovery, Bosom Buddies and a long list of other groups spanning different diagnoses and stages of survivorship. A dedicated section for adolescents and young adults takes in CHOC, the Childhood Cancer Foundation South Africa, the Cancer Dojo application and Ari’s Cancer Foundation. Geriatric guidelines get their own reference through international geriatric oncology material, on the view that an older patient’s circumstances are not just a scaled-down version of a younger patient’s.
The library also holds material on getting access to medicines in resource-limited settings and on finding a way through the South African healthcare system, a quietly practical addition in a country where medical aid rules, public sector referral paths and out of pocket costs decide much of what comes next. Other sections deal with breast cancer in young women, genetic counselling, lymphoedema support and gender-affirming healthcare guidelines. The practice asks readers to write in with resources it has left out, a sign the page is intended to keep expanding.
Access and hours
Consulting hours are listed as 7am to 7pm, Monday to Sunday. Cancer care rarely arranges itself around a nine-to-five, and a broad daily window counts for a lot to people who are working, raising children, coming in from beyond the city or simply trying to slot an appointment into a treatment cycle that leaves them worn out at foreseeable points of the week. For anyone hunting for an oncologist Johannesburg families can reach on a Saturday afternoon, published seven-day hours are worth knowing from the start.
Cancer care across South Africa runs through a broad blend of public and private settings, and finding one’s way through it differs hugely from person to person. A practice that puts its treatment list, its tumour groups, its team make-up, its hours and a set of independent references out in the open is doing something small but genuinely helpful. It cuts down the number of questions a frightened person has to voice before they can tell whether they have come to 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
