>>Viv Parry: In 2013 as part of a major review of radiotherapy services the government
announced an investment of 250 million pounds in two new high-energy proton beam therapy
centres one here at University College Hospital London and here at The Christie in Manchester.
>>Ed Smith: The proton therapy centre here at The Christie Hospital in Manchester opened
in the Autumn of 2018, and treated its’ first patient in December 2018. The proton
centre at The Christie in Manchester and the proton centre at University College London
Hospitals will each treat up to 750 patients per year.
>>Viv Parry: so what is proton beam therapy? It's a super precise form of radiotherapy
that only delivers its lethal payload of radiation
in the tumour and not beyond it. now for most cancer patients today’s modern
x-ray based radiotherapy is so sophisticated that they don't need proton
beam therapy.Its’ advantages is for a very select group of patients and for them
it can make all the difference. For example, children with brain cancer hitting
only the tumour means that they avoid potential side-effects such as learning
disabilities. And here's the Science; conventional x-rays hurl little packets
of light called photons in the direction of the tumour.A bit like throwing
a small ball at a big thick jelly. They enter fast, get slowed down a
bit and pass on out the other side. Even with very modern precision radiotherapy x-rays
can still cause damage to all the tissues they pass through. Protons are particles from
deep inside an atom. Now imagine your jelly again and throwing a tiny but really heavy
ball at it. Protons don't travel as far and quickly come to a dead halt, but their unique
trick is that they release a sudden burst of energy as they stop. That the lethal payload
bit.
Turning this science into a clinical facility is a huge undertaking. To hurl protons at
a tumour you need a cyclotron. It's only the size of a big car but it weighs about the
same as a Boeing 747. Inside the cyclotron are high-powered magnets which strip protons
from hydrogen atoms in water before supercharging them. These amazing 360 degree gantries deliver
the proton therapy, they're hugely complex hundred-ton machines each as tall as a three-story
house. You won't be surprised to know that there's quite a lot of specialist reinforced
concrete 17 foot thick in places weighing one and a half times the weight of an aircraft
carrier. And in London there's an additional challenge much of it is being built underground.
So these two centres are a triumph of science engineering, and
construction.
>>Dr Adrian Crellin: It’s an incredibly exciting moment for us in radiotherapy treatment
and in actual fact for history of cancer treatment
in this country. Modern radiotherapy is incredibly efficient incredibly sophisticated but proton
beam therapy takes us just to a quite new place
for highly selected patients. But for children in particular most of their tissues
are very sensitive to standard low doses of radiotherapy and for them this
makes the whole difference between into their future and the long-term side effects and
they're outcomes, so that to me is the difference between very good and excellent.