England has taken its first steps to providing an advanced form of radiotherapy to patients, health minister Ann Keen announced on 18 August.
Hospitals are being invited to bid to provide proton beam therapy, which can cure tumours without damaging vital organs. The National Specialised Commissioning Team (NSCT) has been asked by the Department to hold a competition to identify possible providers of proton beam services in England. Patients who need this treatment currently have to go aboard to receive it.
Chairman of the National Commissioning Group for Proton Therapy Dr Adrian Crellin said: “I am delighted that work has now started to offer Proton Therapy services in the UK. Proton Beam Therapy is much safer way of treating specific types of cancer that occur in the retina, skull and spine without damaging vital organs.
“However it is important to remember that proton therapy is necessary for less than 1% of patients and modern conventional radiotherapy continues to be the most effective and best treatment for the majority.”
Ros Barnes, who has campaigned for proton therapy service in the UK since taking her son Alex to be treated in the US, said: “I am absolutely thrilled with today’s announcement from the Department of Health as this is a monumental step forward in specialist cancer care for children and adults with rare cancers.
“This investment in new radiotherapy technology will give doctors a powerful new weapon to help fight rare cancers and give some patients a fighting chance. I am a great believer in proton therapy as I have witnessed, firsthand, how it is has preserved the intellect and physical well being of my little boy.
“I am grateful that the government listened when I told them how hard it was for Alex and I to get on that plane, and leave my family and my home without the support of all of the health professionals that we know and trust.
“I know now that in the future, little children in England will get the best cancer care on the planet because the new proton centre will be run by NHS staff and that my little boy has, in a small way contributed to it.”
To read about one family's struggle to have their son treated abroad with proton beam therapy, click here.
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