Radiotherapy

(asked on 1st June 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate funding to more efficient forms of radiotherapy technology; and if he will make a statement.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 6th June 2018

Significant investments have been, and continue to be, made to improve both the efficiency of radiotherapy equipment and the range of more innovative radiotherapy treatments that are routinely available to patients:

- In October 2016, NHS England announced a £130 million fund to modernise radiotherapy across England, ensuring that older linear accelerators (LINACs - radiotherapy machines) are either upgraded or replaced. These upgraded/new machines will deliver both a wider range of innovative treatment techniques and are also significantly faster, enabling more patients to benefit from the latest technology regardless of where they live;

- NHS England has also committed £15 million over three years to evaluate the benefits of stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR) in the treatment of a number of new clinical indications. SABR is an innovative radiotherapy technique that more precisely targets cancers with radiotherapy, reducing the damage to the surrounding tissues. A further £6 million was also committed by NHS England to support a number of Cancer Research UK sponsored SABR clinical trials. It is envisaged that the results of both the trials and the evaluation programme will enable more patients to routinely access SABR treatments;

- Following an investment of £23 million to improve access to Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), another more precise form of radiotherapy with fewer side effects, the National Health Service is now regularly exceeding access standards, meaning that more people are benefiting from this treatment. The percentage of radiotherapy patients who received IMRT increased from 10% (1,660) in April to June 2012 to 44% (8,865) in January to March 2017. The current access standard is 24%; and

- In 2012, the Government provided £250 million to build two proton beam therapy centres in England (at University College London Hospital and The Christie in Manchester), the first of which will become operational in autumn 2018.

No assessment has been made of the effect of national prices for radiotherapy treatment.

Reticulating Splines