Super zapper to combat cancer

REVOLUTIONARY new cancer treatment will come to Oldham when the £17 million Christie radiotherapy centre opens early next year.

The Christie Hospital is one of only two cancer centres in the UK to offer the treatment, which allows patients to be given a higher dose of radiotherapy in the safest possible way.

It will initially be used for people with prostate cancer, and will offer new hope to patients by better targeting the tumour, while dramatically cutting treatment time.

Called Elekta VMAT technology, it will be used at the multi-million pound Christie centre currently under construction at the Royal Oldham Hospital.

Radiotherapy is delivered by the £1.3 million rotating machine called a linear accelerator in around two minutes.

Previously, a single radiotherapy treatment could take up to 15 minutes.

Two of the machines are being installed at the centre, and this will mean far more patients can be treated each day.

The Christie runs one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world, and treats more than 400 patients a day at its main site in Withington.

Up to 70 patients a day will be treated at the new centre in Oldham.

Physicist Dr Carl Rowbottom, who leads the treatment at The Christie, said: “This new technique is much better for patients, it’s quicker, and they’re more comfortable as they don’t have to keep still for long periods.

“It is much more effective at targeting the specific site of the tumour while sparing adjacent healthy tissues.”

Dr Rowbottom added: “We hope to expand the technology in the future so we can offer it to patients with other forms of cancer.”

Outside of The Christie, the treatment is offered only by London’s Royal Marsden Hospital. The Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology on the Wirral offers an equivalent technique, but uses different technology.