In the use of new drugs for cancer, we lag several years behind other countries - especially the USA. Now here is evidence that the NHS is even more behind in the use of the latest techniques in radiotherapy. It would appear that the Cyberknife has only started to be used in Britain this year.

...the CyberKnife (pictured above) allows clinicians to target certain cancers much more accurately without affecting the surrounding tissue. The new technology also offers an option for treating tumours that used to be inoperable.

Some of the first British patients to benefit from the CyberKnife, have been treated at the London Clinic since the beginning of the year, following the opening of a new, £80 million cancer centre.

The new machine is at a private hospital but is also available to be used by the NHS.

The UK lags behind many other European countries in the provision of CyberKnife treatment, and similar machines such as Novalis Tx and Gamma Knife. They have been in use in the US for 10 years, initially for brain tumours, and, in the past few years, for lung cancer. They are now also licensed in the US for use in head, neck, lung and pancreatic cancer.

Here is the full article.

Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS

Comments (0) TrackBack (0)