The Christie is set to bring to Manchester a new form of advanced cancer treatment for a wide range of cancers particularly benefitting children and young adults. 

The Christie, along with its partners, has won a national tender to develop a centre for Proton Beam Therapy (PBT), an advanced form of radiotherapy which can target tumours far more precisely than conventional methods.

Success has come as a result of a collaborative approach by The Christie with its partners Central Manchester University Hospital NHS Trust, Salford Royal NHS Trust and Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) and with support from Manchester City Council.

Andrew Lansley made the announcement at a visit to the Christie Hospital that up to £250 million will be invested by the Department of Health in building Proton Beam Therapy facilities at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust Hospital in Manchester and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Currently patients requiring PBT have to travel abroad for long periods of time to receive this state of the art treatment as the service is not available in the UK. These treatments will now be delivered in Manchester as a national service combining the expertise of cancer specialists from the three hospitals.

The Christie, known internationally for 100 years of world firsts, provides radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world, delivering 100,000 radiotherapy treatments per year.  The specialist cancer centre treats 40,000 cancer patients a year and as well as its main site, has two radiotherapy centres in Greater Manchester.

Dr Nick Slevin, consultant at The Christie said: "For a specific range of cancers, the advantages of proton beam therapy over conventional radiotherapy are now unquestionable.  Proton beam therapy can very precisely target the cancer saving lives with fewer side-effects."

Caroline Shaw, Chief Executive of The Christie said: "Providing proton beam therapy for UK patients is a naturaldevelopment for us as true cancer specialists.  This will allow us to build on our world-class expertise and complement our existing extensive cancer services. Patient care is our absolute priority.  We have worked closely with our Manchester based partners on this bid.  Their support, expertise and collaboration contributed to this breakthroughand both Greater Manchester and communities across the UK will certainly see the significant benefit in years to come."

A joint proposal to provide a national PBT service with University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), will offer the first PBT service in the UK, allowing unparalleled access for patients and their families from all over the UK. Around [1,500 patients] will be treated with Proton Beam Therapy, every year.

The new service will bring together some of the world's leading specialists in complex cancers.  Together, UCLH and The Christie will see more children and teenagers with cancer than almost any other centre in the world, and more adults with brain cancers than any other centre in the UK.

Dr Ed Smith, a consultant paediatric oncologist at The Christie, said:

"Children and young people in the UK will benefit from local access to this advanced form of treatment, with better outcomes and less chance of long term side effects.  This exciting development for Manchester will build on an already large and comprehensive paediatric oncology service."  

Proton Beam Therapy is beneficial for many child cancer cases, but is also used to treat brain cancers, head and neck cancers and sarcomas.  

David Dalton, Chief Executive of Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust said:

"Patients will now not have to travel oversees for this treatment, at a time when they are trying to cope with their condition, this is simply great news and we are delighted that we are playing a major part in this. By working together with partners in this way, it will ensure that we all continue to provide the best possible clinical outcome and high quality care to those patients who are in need of this treatment. This partnership has strengthened our regions neuroscience, cancer and paediatric expertise and services."

Mike Deegan, Chief Executive of Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust adds:

"This is fantastic news for everyone, staff, patients and most importantly the children and their families who will now be able to access this state-of-the-art therapy without having to travel abroad.  We are proud to be part of the team bringing this new technology to the UK and are looking forward to working with our partners to develop a world class PBT service that builds on Manchester's unparalleled facilities and expertise in the treatment of cancer."

Mike Emmerich, Chief Executive New Economy Manchester said:

"This is fantastic news for Manchester and is a further boost to the City's ambitions to establish Manchester as a world class centre for science and innovation."

This is another major step forward for Manchester, after itwas officially ranked the best centre in the country for cancer research in the last national Research Assessment Exercise.

This Proton Beam Therapy (PBT) service will start treating patients towards the end of 2017.

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