Manchester gets UK's first high-energy proton beam cancer therapy machine quoting : The Guardian

In 1989, Clatterbridge cancer centre became the first hospital-based proton treatment centre in the world, when it unveiled its low-energy proton beam machine, which is used for eye treatment. The Manchester machine has been nicknamed Emmeline, after Emmeline Pankhurst, the leader of the suffragette movement, who was born nearby. The proton beam centre in Manchester aims to admit its first patients in August 2018 and is expected to treat 750 patients a year. University College hospital in London will open a second proton beam centre in the summer of 2020. The Christie hospital will become the first in the UK to use a high-energy proton beam, which is used for a wider variety of cancers.




A revolutionary cancer-fighting machine will deliver proton beam therapy for the first time in the UK. Its arrival has been heralded by two young cancer patients, Lucy Thomas and Emma Payton, both aged 11, who both had to travel abroad to get the proton beam treatment. Weighing 90 tonnes, it was slowly winched into its new home at The Christie in Manchester today. Emma said: "It did make it harder as we were going away from all of our family and friends, so it will make it a lot easier for other families."

Proton beam therapy 'spares healthy brain cells'

VideoThe main component for a new proton beam therapy centre, due to open at The Christie in Manchester in August 2018, is arriving a the hospital. Her mum Rachael said: "To be able to spare as many healthy brain cells as possible, which proton does, it makes such a difference. Erin Birdsey, from Northwich, Cheshire, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour when she was aged six, is one of many patients who have been sent abroad by the NHS for the treatment. She thinks having the treatment close to home "can only be a positive thing". She and her family went to the US.


collected by :Lucy William

To follow all the new news about Health care