University College London Hospital is to build a ground-breaking new £150m cancer treatment centre, offering world-leading new radiotherapy to patients, which targets tumours more precisely.
The Proton Beam Therapy centre and in-patient hospital will be built at Grafton Way, next to University College of London hospital, near Tottenham Court Road.
The Government has committed £250m to fund two PBT centres, this one at UCLH and another at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester.
With conventional radiotherapy, X-rays not only damage the tumour but also the surrounding tissue, which can have significant side-effects. Protons, however, deposit much more energy exactly where it is needed, destroying the malignant cells but sparing much more of the surrounding healthy tissue.
There are only 30 PBT clinics worldwide and the NHS currently sends only a selection of children and adults needing Proton Beam Therapy to the United States.
The new London centre is to open in 2018 and 1,500 cancer patients with the most complex tumours can be welcomed for treatment.