Southern Oncology opened its doors in 2020 and was born out of the dream to provide holistic cancer treatment to patients and to partner with them on the road to recovery.
Holistic cancer treatment ensures all a patient’s needs are taken care of. It includes the cancer treatment plan; psychological, emotional and family support; management of the side effects of treatment and assisting the patient with any medical concerns.
The specialist cancer treatment practice, which operates from the well-known Vincent Pallotti Hospital in the Cape Town suburb of Pinelands, is headed by two female oncologists, Dr Lisa Dalmeyer and Dr Heide Hart.
Drs Hart and Dalmeyer attended university together and decided to team up in a practice because of their common values and a shared vision in their approach to the treatment of cancer patients.
The practice offers its patients access to state-of-the-art equipment available at the Vincent Pallotti Hospital which allows Drs Dalmeyer and Hart to provide their patients with the latest cutting-edge cancer treatments such as immunotherapy, targeted cancer therapy and advanced radiotherapy techniques, which incorporates IMRT/VMAT and stereotactic radiotherapy.
Patients of Southern Oncology benefit not only from the experience and expertise of Drs Dalmeyer and Hart but their treatment protocols are guided by additional expert input from a range of medical specialists. They participate in weekly Tumour Board meetings with these medical specialists to devise the most beneficial treatment plan for each patient.
The motto of the practice is that patient must be given all the information regarding their disease and the treatment options available to them.
Southern Oncology offers treatment for all cancer types but Drs Dalmeyer and Hart have a particular interest in treating lung, colorectal, skin and gastrointestinal cancers and particularly focus on breast and gynaecological cancers.
Dr Lisa Dalmeyer – Oncologist
Dr Lisa Dalmeyer’s interest in helping others began in school where she dedicated time to community service and charitable works and this interest led to her serving as president of the Rotary Club, an organisation focused on community upliftment.
After matriculating with top marks from Theodor Herzl School in Port Elizabeth, she went on to study medicine at the University of Cape Town and graduated in 2007 as a medical doctor. She also holds a Diploma in Child Health from the College of Medicine of South Africa.
She completed her two-year internship at Free State Academic Hospital where she gained valuable experience working across a range of disciplines including Internal Medicine, General Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics and Anaesthesiology. After her internship, she completed her community service year at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in East London.
Upon graduating as a medical doctor, she set off to the United Kingdom where she quickly adapted to the challenging environment of a new country and its medical system. Her experience in the UK included work in numerous London hospitals mainly in the departments of general medicine as well as accidents and emergencies.
Her empathetic and caring nature led her to return to the University of Cape Town (UCT) to pursue her Master’s degree specialising in radiation oncology, which she completed in 2016.
She gained extensive experience in the treatment of various cancers during her tenures at both the Groote Schuur and Tygerberg Hospital oncology units.
Dr Dalmeyer decided to open her own practice in 2020 to break free from limitations in the public sector and to be able to offer the full range of the latest treatment protocols and innovative medicines to her patients.
She has a keen interest in breast, gynaecological, lung and colorectal cancers and her research in these fields has led her to publish numerous academic papers on these areas of disease.
Her passion for working with patients on a personal level means she has made a significant impact on their lives and she is passionate about providing support and care throughout their cancer treatment journey.
Dr Heide Hart – Oncologist
Dr Heide Hart grew up in Pretoria, matriculated from Pretoria Girls High School in 1999 and received her MBChB degree at the University of Pretoria in 2005.
She completed her internship at Johannesburg’s Tembisa Hospital gaining experience in surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, anaesthetics and orthopaedics. For her community service year, she stayed on at Tembisa Hospital as a medical officer in the Department of Surgery.
Thereafter, followed a three-year stint in medical marketing at pharmaceutical giant Roche while she also worked as a locum in various emergency units in Johannesburg. At Roche, she started out as a Medical Advisor in the field of Renal and Transplant medicine, but moved across to its Oncology division.
Although she always had a desire to help patients, she had not found the correct field in medicine until she discovered that Oncology would allow her to pursue innovative medical treatments, as well as allow her to make a real difference in the lives of her patients.
This led her to return to clinical medicine in 2011 and after spending a year as a Medical Officer in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Groote Schuur Hospital, she decided to specialise in Radiation Oncology and enrolled in the Master’s programme at the University of Cape Town.
While studying for her Master’s degree, Dr Hart served as a registrar in Groote Schuur Hospital’s Radiation Oncology Department where she learned about holistic patient-centred oncological care, including treatment with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and targeted cancer drugs, and the benefits of a multidisciplinary approach to patient treatment. Once a senior registrar, she spent time covering the breast and neuro-oncology clinics as the consultant cover.
She completed her fellowship in Radiation Oncology and her Master’s in Medicine in 2016 and was awarded the South African Clinical and Radiation Oncology (SACRO) medal for the highest academic achievement in the final Clinical Oncology examinations.
Dr Hart was then employed in private practice at Cancercare, in Cape Town’s Southern Suburbs for three years.
Prior to working in private practice, she lectured at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in the Department of Radiation Oncology. She is still involved with lecturing at UCT and is an Honorary Lecturer in this department.
It was in 2021 that she teamed up with Dr Dalmeyer at Southern Oncology thereby realising her dream of having a private practice with like-minded oncologist.
Dr Hart has a special interest in breast, gynaecological, lung and skin malignancies. As she is passionate about staying abreast with the latest research in oncology to provide the best patient care, she regularly participates in conferences and presentations in these fields. She also serves on the steering committee of the Cape Town Breast Cancer Forum, a group of doctors who wish to promote the best-practice treatment of breast cancer. She regularly chairs these forum meetings which assists doctors to provide the best care for breast cancer patients across the Western Cape and further afield.
She has a special interest in advanced radiotherapy planning techniques, in particular stereotactic radiotherapy which led to her undertaking the ESTRO Stereotactic radiotherapy course in 2020. This has allowed her to confidently treat patients with stereotactic radiotherapy, which she truly believes is practice-changing in the field of oncology.
Dr Hart most enjoys getting to know her patients and their families well and be present with them through their journey with their cancer diagnosis and treatment.
