Cancer patient reassurance over new radiotherapy kit

Hospital bosses have moved to reassure cancer patients in Lancashire that they will get the same standard of radiotherapy treatment – regardless of whether or not it is delivered by a new state-of-the-art machine coming to the county.

The Royal Preston is one of more than two dozen facilities nationwide where the government is funding the replacement of equipment that is more than 10 years old.

The hospital – which provides radiotherapy services for the whole of Lancashire and South Cumbria – has seven radiotherapy machines, one of which is to be substituted for the new linear accelerator (LINAC) kit.

In some parts of the country, the new technology will replace machinery that is so out-of-date it will mean patients will benefit from more “precise” radiotherapy.

However, Gillian Clarkson, radiotherapy service manager for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that while there are undoubted upsides to the new equipment – including reduced time on the treatment table – it will not result in some patients receiving “better” care than others.

“[The machines] are all of the same precision and the same accuracy.  Yes, [the new one] has got enhanced features – however, it will deliver the same precise radiotherapy that we’re delivering on all of our other machines.

“So the reassurance to our patients is that every machine we have is delivering the same standard…[of] radiotherapy,” Gillian explained.

However, she stressed that the government funding for the LINAC machine was nevertheless extremely welcome – not least because of the day-to-day “reliability” of new kit in comparison to machines that have been in operation for more than a decade.

LTH currently has no waiting list for radiotherapy, with all patients seen as soon as their treatment plan has been prepared – and well within the national 31-day target from the date at which a decision was made to treat them.

Gillian says the LINAC machine will also bring other benefits – both now and in the future.

“It does have additional features, including high definition, AI-enhanced imaging – which means that we will have better visualisation of the tumors and the organs that are at risk.   So that will have benefits from a patient perspective [of] minimising side effects.

“We will be able to see those tumours clearer [and] spot them straight away, rather than us having to take a little bit more time to look – so that’s where it will help with speeding things up,” Gillian added.

She says it will also enable the Royal Preston to incorporate the latest developments in radiotherapy, which are hovering on the horizon.

“[The machine is ready for] full adaptive radiotherapy in the future.   That means you can change the radiation plan during the patient’s treatment – depending on how their anatomy or their tumor position moves;  we can be responsive to those changes inside the patient,” Gillian said.

Adaptive treatment is not yet available anywhere in the country – and when it is, LTH will have to fund its introduction within the LINAC machine.

The LDRS understands the new equipment – in its current, non-adaptive form – is expected to be installed at the Royal Preston by the end of the year at a cost of around £2.3m.

Nationwide, the rollout of LINAC machines across 28 trusts is part of a £70m investment by the government.

Public health minister and West Lancashire MP Ashley Dalton – who has herself twice been treated for cancer – told the LDRS that the cost of the kit is just a fraction of the cash the government has pumped into the NHS to make it “fit for the future”.

“[It’s] just a tiny bit of the £26bn that was secured in the last budget for the NHS Plan for Change.

“These [machines] are much better at treating hard-to-reach tumors, which means that patients that could have risked damaging other organs – particularly in the abdomen, which is pretty busy -… can have their treatment with far less risk of [that] and also far less side effects.   So it’s fantastic.

“What’s fundamental in the NHS is, yes…we need to make sure that we’re able to make as much use as possible of the new technologies, but also we’ve got to see reform in the

NHS so that we are ensuring that it’s as efficient as it can be,” Ms. Dalton said.

Three other radiotherapy machines at LTH are due to be replaced – one in each of the next three years – with that programme currently funded from within the trust’s existing budget.