Pioneering cancer centre to be named after scientist

A GROUNDBREAKING cancer treatment centre under development in Newport is to be named after a pioneering scientist.

Proton Partners International will announce today that it will name its clinics the Rutherford Cancer Centres.

The centres will offer patients a comprehensive range of cancer treatments and, from 2018, will be the first in the UK to offer high energy proton beam therapy.

The oncology centres have been named to reflect the Nobel prize winning scientist Ernest Rutherford’s contribution in identifying and naming the proton in 1911.

Three centres are currently under development: in Newport, south Wales; Bomarsund, Northumberland and Reading, Berkshire.

The Newport centre is nearing completion and will offer chemotherapy, radiotherapy and imaging via the latest planning and treatment technologies.

Positron emission tomography – computed tomography (PET-CT) will be available in the second half of this year and proton beam therapy will be available at the centre from early 2018.

Treatment at the Rutherford Cancer Centres will be available to medically insured private patients, self-paying patients and patients referred by the NHS.

Professor Gordon McVie, chairman of Proton Partners International, said: “Proton Partners International is committed to transforming cancer care. The Rutherford name is synonymous with a major breakthrough in cancer treatment and therefore we felt that this was a fitting identity for our treatment centres.

“With cancer on the rise, there is a growing need for patients to be offered a holistic and sophisticated level of cancer care. Patients at the Rutherford Cancer Centres will have access to a wide range of cancer services.”