A South Coast cancer charity has thanked its supporters after completing a £1million fundraising campaign and making the final payment for a pioneering radiotherapy machine.
PLANETS Cancer Charity, which serves those in Hampshire, Dorset, West Sussex and the Isle of Wight, has been fundraising for the past 6 years to fully purchase Mobetron, a revolutionary mobile device which delivers radiotherapy during surgery – known as intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT).
When the charity installed it at University Hospital Southampton in 2016, clinicians there became the first in the UK to have access to it for patients and it remains the only centre in the country to offer the treatment.
Around 190 patients in the UK have been treated with the technology in Southampton since its introduction with impressive results, such as preliminary results for colorectal patients reported by the Video Journal of Oncology in 2018 and those for pancreatic cases reported in the British Journal of Surgery last year. It is now subject to a national clinical trial for patients with advanced and recurrent colorectal cancer which are the most challenging tumours in the abdomen and pelvis.
Alex Mirnezami, Professor of Surgical Oncology and consultant Colorectal Surgeon, has said:
“To date the results show that the addition of IORT using Mobetron in addition to cancer surgery is advantageous for the patients treated and our findings are being presented regularly at major international cancer conferences.
“Without PLANETS and all of the charity’s supporters we would never have got to this point, so I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has played a part and made it possible by raising such a significant sum.”
In addition to delivering Mobetron PLANETS, which helps patients with pancreatic, liver, abdominal (colorectal) and neuroendocrine cancer, has raised more than £1.8 million since its formation to patient support groups along with other innovative treatments and research.
Island residents CAN access it – how? If it’s mobile will it do sessions on the Island or will cancer sufferers have to schlepp over to the mainland as uusal? How will patients get referred?