Radiotherapy at Royal Preston Hospital becomes one of country’s first centres of excellence

Some of the SGRT set up team at Royal Preston Hospital. Pic: Rosemere Cancer Foundation

Rosemere Cancer Centre’s Radiotherapy Department has become one of the country’s first centres of excellence.

The department at Royal Preston Hospital has become one of the country’s first Surface Guided Radiotherapy Treatment (SGRT) centres of excellence due to investment by Rosemere Cancer Foundation.

The team treats around 240 cancer patients a day and is now preparing to host radiotherapy teams from the country’s other 64 specialist cancer centres looking to develop their own SGRT programmes.

Dan Hill, chief officer of Rosemere Cancer Foundation and head of hospital charities at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are delighted that Rosemere Cancer Centre has become one of the first specialist cancer centres in the country to achieve SGRT centre of excellence status.

“SGRT has many benefits to both patients and radiotherapy team staff. It’s a non-invasive mapping system that uses a near infrared light to better position patients so that their radiotherapy treatment is delivered with improved accuracy and speed. This reduces the risks of side-effects caused by damage to the surrounding area and from overall exposure to radiation from repeat positioning scans and exposure during the actual treatment process.

“Patients no longer need to have tattoos as treatment guide marks and there is less physical handling, which is better for patient dignity and better also for staff back health and efficiency.”

The Centre introduced SGRT, an advanced non-invasive set-up and monitoring tool used to improve the efficacy and experience of radiotherapy, to six of its eight radiotherapy treatment rooms and its CT scanner room in March 2023.

Rosemere Cancer Foundation spent £1.3 million on equipment which made the Centre the biggest single-site SGRT centre in the whole country.

A further £405,000 investment by the charity this year means that now all eight radiotherapy treatment rooms and another CT scanner are SGRT compliant.

All breast cancer patients, all lung cancer patients and all palliative care patients now use SGRT during their radiotherapy treatment.

SGRT is also set to replace conventional radiotherapy for all patients needing treatment for gynaecological, prostate, bowel and bladder cancers in a roll-out programme starting in January.

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