Cancer patients to get pioneering treatment

10:57am Wednesday 18th June 2008

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A PIONEERING trial of radiotherapy treatment for cancer sufferers is to be launched at Southend Hospital.

The radiotherapy department will pilot equipment designed to accurately target tumours, helping those with prostate, head and neck cancers.

The trial involves IMRT - intensity-modulated radiotherapy - which allows radiation to fit the shape of the tumour more accurately while avoiding healthy tissue.

The study will look at whether patients with prostate cancer should have fewer sessions of radiotherapy, but at a higher dose, before moving on to patients with head and neck cancers.

James Green, the hospital's consultant clinical scientist, said staff had been breaking boundaries in the area of radiotherapy physics, with new developments in the field every month He said: "We are invoved in so many new developments as more and more sophisticated technology is developed."

Mr Green is also delighted the team can now work with IGRT - image-guided radiotherapy - using equipment bought via the hospital's recent Pinpoint charity appeal.

The equipment scans the tumour just before treatment and can pick up slight movements which can happen due to breathing or the amount of gas in the body.

Mr Green said: "We can account for any movement of the tumour due to breathing and, therefore, shape our fields much more precisely. We have been working with the manufacturers and are the first in Europe to get this working with our type of CT simulator.

"Radiotherapy is becoming so technical and scientific, and we have to keep up to date to be able to offer our patients leading-edge treatments."

Southend Hospital is also one of the first in the country to introduce partial breast irradiation, which treats tumours using a high-dose rate radioactive source administered through fine wires. It means women can receive their entire treatment programme in one week instead of three.

The department is also improving thanks to a new attachment for its large-bore CT simulator, which records the breathing cycle of a patient during the initial cancer scan for lung and breast tumours.

This means operators can "fine tune" the equipment to ensure the tumour does not move off-target as the patient breathes.