Proton therapy for cancer patients

CANCER patients in Wales are to begin receiving proton therapy treatment through the NHS after a treatment centre was granted permission.

The Rutherford Cancer Centre South Wales in Newport was the first to offer the treatment in the UK when it opened in April, but until now it has only been available to private patients.

On Tuesday the Welsh Health Specialised Services Committee, responsible for services offered by Wales’ seven local health boards, gave approval for the centre to accept patients referred through NHS Wales.

The centre, run by Proton Partners International, is expected to begin treating NHS patients immediately.

It is the second in the UK to allow NHS proton beam therapy following the Christie cancer centre in Manchester, which will be the first to give the treatment next week.

Previously NHS patients had been forced to travel abroad to receive the treatment at clinics in Europe and the US.

Professor Roger Taylor at the Rutherford centre, said: “Proton therapy is not a panacea for all types of cancer, however we have seen where it can be beneficial in areas such as brain tumours or cancers of the spine or head and neck, and working with the NHS means that adult patients in Wales will now have an option to be treated closer to home.”

Proton beam therapy is a specialist form of radiotherapy that targets certain cancers very precisely, increasing success rates and reducing side-effects.