The UK has recently seen the introduction of a new treatment type that has been shown to be particularly effective in treating children with certain types of cancer. The treatment is advanced radiotherapy and it is hoped that it will help to treat over 1000 patients in the country every year.
Before this year, the treatment was only available in Switzerland and the United States but it is now going to be offered in both London and Manchester hospitals. The government said that they are going to be spending £250 million on developing treatment centres for this type of disease.
The treatment actually involves something called proton beams, which are high energy beams that are capable of destroying cancerous cells. They are good for treating complex forms of cancer, especially in children, and can prevent some of the side effects usually associated with treating childhood cancers, such as loss of intelligence, deafness and the development of secondary cancers.
Although the therapy is going to be introduced this year, it is not thought it is going to be available everywhere in the country until 2017. The government is still committed to making the treatment available to people in the UK however and until that time they are going to be paying for people to receive the treatment in Switzerland or the United States. It is estimated that these foreign treatment practices are going to cost the NHS £30 million every year until the new system is developed.
The health secretary, Andrew Lansley has recently stated at a visit to a hospital, “We feel this is a vital service for helping cancer sufferers across the country. Patient outcomes are the most important part of the health care service and we think the proton beam therapy can improve this figure. The government funds will give several hospitals unrivalled cancer treatment facilities.”
Related posts:
- Cancer Research UK says cancer rates are soaring There are a number of newspapers that today have reported...
- Britain has poor cancer survival rate in the over 70′s A recent study has shown that the UK has one...
- Super siblings do a skydive to raise funds for breast cancer research Super siblings do a skydive to raise funds for breast...
- Cancer researchers call for better diet management Researchers involved with cancer have recently called for the amount...
- HRT after a hysterectomy can protect against breast cancer New research has recently shown that hormone replacement therapy for...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.