27
Jun 2017
Christie Cancer Hospital takes delivery of first NHS proton beam therapy machine
The machine will shortly arrive at Christie Hospital in Manchester and will be available from August 2018, meaning patients needing the therapy will no longer have to travel abroad for the treatment.
Proton beam therapy (PBT) uses charged particles, rather than x-rays, to deliver radiotherapy for cancer patients, allowing high energy protons to target tumours directly, thereby reducing the impact and damage to surrounding organs and tissues.
It can be used to treat lung cancer, prostate cancer, liver cancer, sarcomas near the spine or brain, spinal cord tumours and some children’s cancers.
Professor Tony Lomax of the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, who has provided guidance to the NHS on bringing the treatment to the UK, said “Probably for some patients modern radiotherapy is extremely good. But with (PBT) we can take on more complicated tumours and with children we really want to reduce the radiation dose to the normal tissue so I think this is where the technique has a fantastic advantage.”
Further PBT units are also being made available in private clinics throughout the UK, with three more centres being built in Liverpool, Reading and Northumberland.
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Posted by Karen Motley, Paralegal, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (karenmotley@chadlaw.co.uk), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.
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