Search Here

Proton Partners International has announced on Wednesday that they have named their ground-breaking cancer treatment centre in Newport as the Rutherford Cancer Centres. It is named after the pioneering scientist of the new cancer treatment.

It will be the first in the UK to offer high energy proton beam therapy in 2018. The oncology center has been named after the Nobel Prize winning scientist Ernest Rutherford, who has contributed in identifying and naming the proton in 1911.

According to Express there are three centres currently under development. One is in Newport, South Wales, second in Bomarsund, Northumberland and Reading, Berkshire.

The Newport centre is near completion and will offer chemotherapy, radiotherapy and imaging with the use of the latest planning and treatment technologies. In the second half of the year, positron emission tomography - computed tomography (PET-CT) will be available.

Come early 2018, proton beam therapy will also be made available for patients. Proton Beam Therapy is a type of radiotherapy that delivers heavily-charged Protons in a more targeted manner to help reduce damage to unaffected tissue and organs. It can be used for prostate cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, brain tumors.

According to Wales Online, Rutherford Cancer Centres will make these treatments available to medically insured private patients, self-paying patients and patients referred by NHS. Professor Gordon McVie, chairman of Proton Partners International said they are committed to transforming cancer care in the UK.

Until the Rutherford Cancer Centres become operational in 2018 the NHS will continue to refer patients abroad at the Proton Therapy Centre in Prague for treatment

Mike Moran, chief executive officer of Proton Partners International, added: "We are working with the world's leading technology partners to ensure that our centres are equipped with the latest cancer technology." The center will have the capacity to treat 500 patients a year.