MP in row over cancer treatments (From The Northern Echo)

MP in row over cancer treatments

8:00am Monday 13th February 2012 in Peterlee News By Barry Nelson, Health Editor

A NORTH-EAST MP has criticised the “shocking” difference in cancer treatments available in the region compared to London.

Easington MP Grahame Morris made his comments in a Westminster debate after successfully intervening to help a constituent get access to revolutionary new cancer therapy.

The unnamed male patient is said to be delighted after NHS County Durham agreed to pay for the cost of this referral to a CyberKnife advanced radiotherapy centre at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.

The constituent approached the Labour MP after he was told there were no CyberKnife treatment centres in the North. Only three hospitals are equipped with CyberKnife technology in the UK, all of them in London.

CyberKnife delivers very high doses of radiation to small tumours which are difficult to treat with conventional radiotherapy or surgery.

In the debate, Mr Morris complained that his constituents suffer a life-threatening “postcode lottery”.

“The disparity in treatment levels for cancer patients in and around the capital compared with the rest of the country is nothing short of disgraceful,”

he said.

“Data shows that the further someone moves away from London, the smaller their chance is of receiving radiotherapy.”

North-west London tops the list with radiotherapy provision at 94 per cent whereas the North-East is at the bottom with 27 per cent.

New, ground-breaking treatments – such as stereotactic body radiotherapy which, unlike conventional radiotherapy, has few side-effects and involves five days of treatment rather than five weeks, and the robotic CyberKnife system developed for tumour removal – are mostly available in the South.

“My constituent is very happy that he is set to receive the treatment in an NHS hospital,”

said Mr Morris. “But is it not a scandal that he has to travel more than 260 miles to do so?”

But Health Minister Paul Burstow insisted that “significant progress has been made in developing the latest radiotherapy procedures.”

He added: “All new techniques, including advanced radiotherapy, need to be justified on the grounds of cost and clinical effectiveness.”

Last December, former Newcastle United chairman, property developer Sir John Hall, launched a £3m appeal to buy the region’s first CyberKnife radiotherapy machine.

He has teamed up with the Charlie Bear for Cancer Care charity which aims to install one of the machines at the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle.