Supporters of Rosemere Cancer Foundation – who have already helped to raise £800,000 towards the £1.3 million cost of bringing revolutionary Surface Guided Radiotherapy Treatment to Preston – have witnessed it in action.

They were guests of the charity at a Guiding Light Appeal open evening that featured a demonstration.

The specialist camera systems needed to make SGRT possible have already been installed in four of the six radiotherapy treatment rooms at Rosemere Cancer Centre, with work to be completed within weeks in the other two and its CT scanner room.

When finished, Rosemere Cancer Centre will become just the 15th out of the UK’s 65 specialist cancer centres to be able to provide SGRT, not only making it one of the first but also, the country’s biggest single site SGRT
centre.

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Dan Hill, chief officer of Rosemere Cancer Foundation, said: “To enable the cancer centre’s radiotherapy team to be one of the country’s earliest SGRT providers, as well as for the centre to become the country’s single largest SGRT site, is a privilege but it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our wonderful supporters.

“It’s they who are bringing SGRT to patients going forward from January – patients being booked in now to receive their treatment. The plan is for breast cancer patients to be the first to experience the many benefits of SGRT with it then being rolled out to everyone.”

Dan continued: “We have negotiated an agreement with SGRT’s supplier whereby we have the equipment even though we haven’t yet met the final payment. It’s our hope that we will be able to pay off what we owe by the spring.”

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Speakers at the open evening included Radiotherapy Service Manager Gillian Clarkson and Colin Jennings, Deputy Head of Radiotherapy Physics and Consultant Clinical Scientist.

Mr Jennings told supporters that Rosemere Cancer Centre was now the country’s 10th largest specialist cancer centre with a radiotherapy department treating 240 patients a day, five days a week, from across Lancashire and South Cumbria.

He explained SGRT as a tried and tested non invasive mapping system widely used in specialist cancer centres throughout America and now being rapidly adopted in the UK for its proven benefits.

Among the benefits listed by Mr Jennings were improved treatment accuracy, a reduction in the risk of treatment side-effects and in exposure to radiation from repeat positioning scans, faster treatment, patients no longer needing to have permanent tattoos as treatment guide marks and a shift from claustrophobic enclosed face masks for some head and neck cancer patients to more comfortable open masks.

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