CancerPartnersUK, is lobbying MPs and health officials about the poor state of radiotherapy services in the UK. The company has this month (September 2010) published a comprehensive report, Radiotherapy – A radical plan for Britain, co-authored by Professor Karol Sikora with input from senior oncologists, which demonstrates how the UK has fallen behind with uptake of new technology, such as IMRT and IGRT, but at the same time shows how relatively simple it would be to improve provision across the country.

The CancerPartnersUK report coincides with the publication on 7th September 2010 of a report by Cancer Research UK - Poor Public Awareness Highlights Radiotherapy’s Cinderella Status which states that there is a general lack of awareness by the public of how good radiotherapy is at treating cancer. Despite the number of people receiving radiotherapy in the UK increasing by 75% since 2000, 12% of cancer patients who might benefit from radiotherapy will not receive it. It says that UK healthcare trusts are failing to offer equal opportunities for patients to receive radiotherapy.

Rupert Cockcroft CEO of CancerPartners UK says: “Poor value is attached to radiotherapy as a major cancer treatment, and there is serious under-provision of radiotherapy in certain parts of the country resulting in a postcode lottery.”

CancerPartners UK has demonstrated that it is possible to rapidly create a growing network of centres, developing a centre in 8 months from the first construction day to treating the first patient. We can help support the local areas by the delivery of cancer treatment technologies such as, Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) and Image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) in purpose built centres. Mr Cockcroft adds: “We deliver our models with the patient at the heart of the service, valuing their time, comfort and delivering state-of-the-art treatment.”

CancerPartners UK has now opened three image guided radiotherapy centres in the UK and a fourth is under construction with several more planned for next year. At these centres we treat cancer patients with many types of cancer, from the most common, such as breast cancers and prostate cancer, to more rare and secondary forms such as lung & liver cancer.

We believe this strategy could deliver better value for money and give patients choices which will result in an inevitable improvement in quality and access without an increase in cost. This strategy also fits with the ambitious plans outlined in the recent Department of Health White Paper Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS in which the Government has pledged to make the NHS more accountable, freeing staff from excessive bureaucracy and judging success on clinical outcomes.

Professor Karol Sikora, Medical Director of CancerPartners UK says: “Opening up the NHS to new providers of services has never been more important and transforming the provision of cancer care requires imaginative solutions. Britain has a huge resource of dedicated, talented and well trained staff - harnessing their innovative energy is vital to achieve a world class service for future cancer patients

Radiotherapy – A Radical Plan for Britain is available on the CancerPartnersUK website
For more information please contact:

Tina Dunworth / Rupert Cockcroft 020 8236 9040

CancerPartnersUK opens new radiotherapy centre in Elstree

I'm delighted to announce we have opened our third centre, in Elstree. It's a particular milestone for CancerPartnersUK and radiotherapy in the UK as it's the first stand alone centre not to be situated on an existing hospital site.

Conveniently located for cancer patients living in Herfordshire and north London, it's an intimate, purpose-built cancer centre offering the latest radiotherapy techniques (IMRT and IGRT) as well as a chemotherapy unit. Staffed by a small specialist team, including local cancer experts, it has the facilities to treat breast cancer and prostate cancer, as well as other forms of the disease.

Elstree is just one of a network of cancer centres we at CancerPartnersUK are building across the UK. We have already opened centres in Portsmouth and Southampton, and are building another in Little Aston, Birmingham.

We continue to strive to bring the best possible treatment options to cancer patients in convenient centres in partnership with local cancer specialists.

Find out more about our centres .

Rupert Cockcroft
Chief executive

How our private radiotherapy centres came about

As an ex-cancer patient I know only too well the importance of being able to get the best quality treatment…and fast.

CancerPartnersUK came about because of my desire to improve access to radiotherapy in the UK. Many patients currently have to travel a long way for treatment, something you can do without when you are ill with cancer. Through our network of private radiotherapy centres across the UK, we’re bringing cutting edge cancer care closer to the people who need it.

Here in the UK, you sometimes have to wait weeks for radiotherapy treatment. Whereas at CancerPartnersUK you can start treatment within days of a referral and the treatment is completely personalised to your needs with the same team of specialists looking after you from start to finish.

I’m proud of the fact we offer the most precise and cutting edge forms of radiotherapy available in the UK today. Up until now only around ten per cent of patients have been able to take advantage of these.

Having been treated for cancer myself, I was keen to make our centres pleasant, relaxing environments too. After all you can end up spending weeks coming for radiotherapy treatment. So our centres are a bit different from the more conventional medical setting – the basement of a hospital. They're light and airy, and all are based on the ground floor.

I’ve been running hospitals over the last 20 years so I was in a great position to get the project off the ground. I was able to recruit the best possible cancer specialists and oncologists, as well as management team, from across the UK.

Our first centre, in Portsmouth, opened in 2009. Since then, despite the economic downturn, we have managed to build three more centres, in Southampton, Elstree and Little Aston with more planned. Feedback from patients has been excellent. Hopefully, in time, we’ll be able to put our centres in reach of all cancer patients across the UK.

Find out more about our personalised approach.

Rupert Cockcroft
Chief executive

Peter Bonetti launches new cancer centre in Little Aston

We started construction this week on a new CancerPartnersUK centre at Little Aston near Birmingham. And the event was honoured with a visit from footballing legend, Peter Bonetti - one of the original members of England's 1966 World Cup squad.

The new facility will open in February 2011 and will house the latest radiotherapy treatments, including intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and image guided radiation therapy (IGRT). These are the most cutting edge and precise radiotherapy treatments available to patients. The new centre will complement the existing cancer services provided at Spire Little Aston Hospital to provide a fully integrated range of cancer treatments on one site.

This is one of the first independent facilities outside London where patients can have radiotherapy on the same site as their other cancer treatments.

The treatment facilities are part of a joint initiative with Spire Healthcare to provide world-class cancer treatments to patients in the West Midlands.

Read more about our centres in Portsmouth, Southampton and Elstree.

Rupert Cockcroft
Chief executive

Insight into living with cancer in 2010

From 17th to 31st May, CancerPartnersUK is supporting Wave 105FM’s Insight into Living with Cancer in 2010. The feature includes interviews with many of our cancer patients in Portsmouth and Southampton to find out about what it’s really like to find out you have cancer and how you can come to terms with it and continue with your life throughout treatment and beyond.
There are also interviews with Professor Karol Sikora, with a glimpse into the future of cancer treatment, and you can see Wave 105FM news reporter, Jason Beck, volunteer to have a CT scan so he can tell us first hand how it feels.
Watch the videos and find out advice and tips from patients and cancer experts on wave105.com/cancer

Cancer care gets personal

The future of cancer care will depend on the personalisation of treatment.This means tailoring treatment to each individual patient, rather than a 'one size fits all' approach.

With drugs the emphasis is on understanding the molecular switches that have gone wrong in an individual cancer patient.This allows the correct choice of drug combination to annihilate the cancer. With radiotherapy it’s all about precision. Getting it to exactly the right place, while avoiding collateral damage to surrounding tissue, is the key.

And the delivery of precise image modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and image guided radiotherapy (IGRT), both provided at CancerPartnersUK's cancer centres, is becoming a reality..for some. We now have fantastic diagnostic images from modern scanning techniques that allow us to see cancer with pinpoint accuracy. Converting this to a radiotherapy delivery plan that is equally sophisticated is the key to our future success to make sure we destroy the cancer with minimal damage to normal tissue.

Currently IMRT and IGRT are only available in certain centres to cancer patients in the UK. However, CancerPartnersUK has offered these types of treatments exclusively to all suitable patients right from the beginning. Personalised medicine is here to stay. In the end it is the only way we can make the best treatment available at an affordable price for everyone.

Find out more about our personalised approach to your treatment.

Karol Sikora
Medical Director

Breast cancer: our beams hit the spot

I’ve been an oncologist for more than 30 years. During that time I’ve seen a revolution in breast cancer treatment. Gone are the days of the radical mastectomy where the breast was removed along with a large amount of surrounding tissue, leaving horrible scars.

Nowadays we have more conservative treatment where the cancer is removed but the breast is left in tact. But to avoid the cancer coming back at the original site we have to give patients radiotherapy. The breast is a very challenging organ to irradiate.

Underneath there are critical structures such as the lungs, heart and nerves. Making sure these structures are outside the treatment site is essential to avoid long-term side effects.

Fortunately modern technology such as that offered at
CancerPartnersUK centres allows us to avoid side effects. The beam can be aimed precisely, using image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) and image modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) to enable us to ensure it’s going to the right place.

This kind of radiotherapy really does reduce the number of women that have to suffer the long term complications of treatment.

Find out more about our approach.

Karol Sikora
Medical Director