So you can listen to your own music or audio books while you have treatment. This is so they are not exposed to the radiation. You may need a mask made if you are having treatment to your head or neck. A course of treatment can last between 3 to 7 weeks. We use this information to improve our site. Your doctor uses these to plan your proton beam therapy. They are also called shells. The rest of this page is about high energy proton beam therapy which is used to treat some other types of cancer. There is a low energy proton machine in Clatterbridge which treats some eye cancers. More information about low energy proton beam therapy for eye cancer, Go to the NHS booklet about receiving proton beam therapy abroad, Find out more about planning radiotherapy, Read more about radiotherapy masks and moulds, Watch the Christie hospital video about having proton beam therapy, Proton Beam Therapy for adults with cancer, Radiotherapy for children's brain tumours, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester, which opened in late 2018, University College London Hospital (UCLH), which is due to open in Autumn 2020, cancers that develop in the head and neck area. The panel will then decide whether the case is suitable for proton beam therapy in line with NHS England clinical commissioning policies and if so, confirm back to the patient’s doctor whether a referral can be made to either the NHS centre at The Christie or, until both NHS proton beam therapy centres are fully up-and-running, one of the NHS commissioned overseas centres in Germany, the USA or Switzerland. Proton beam therapy Some machines can rotate 360 degrees. National Services Scotland, accessed July 2020. The Christie hospital have made a short video showing how you have proton beam therapy. Two NHS centres will provide high energy proton beam therapy in the UK, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (Manchester) and University College London Hospital (UCLH) NHS Foundation Trust. Proton beam therapy is only suitable for certain types of cancer. Call freephone or email us. NHS Wales, accessed July 2020, Proton Beam Therapy Proton beam therapy is a type of radiotherapy that uses a beam of high energy protons, which are small parts of atoms, rather than high energy x-rays (called “photons”) to treat specific types of cancer. Read our information about coronavirus and cancer. Health Education England have developed a film in partnership with NHS England explaining how proton beam therapy works and what impact two state of the art centres in the UK will have on the service that the NHS provides: A national panel of clinical experts reviews individual cases. People have been going abroad since 2008 to have this treatment because it wasn’t available in the UK. You can read more about our cookies before you choose. These are areas where it is important to do as little damage to surrounding healthy cells as possible. You usually have proton beam therapy every day from Monday to Friday. Your doctor will go through these with you. Proton beam therapy enables a dose of high energy protons to be precisely targeted at a tumour, reducing the damage to surrounding healthy tissues and vital organs which is an advantage in certain groups of patients or where the cancer is close to a critical part of the body such as the spinal cord. If a patient’s consultant feels that proton beam therapy might be a suitable treatment for one of their patients, they submit a form to a panel of clinical experts. As with any radiotherapy there may be some long term effects. This will help them with future research. In general, you may feel tired during treatment and for a short while afterwards. This helps to prevent serious complications. Both Trusts have more information about the new proton beam therapy centres on their websites. Since April 2008, eligible patients who required proton beam therapy have been able to access treatment abroad. Links to all of NHS England’s clinical commissioning policies on proton beam therapy, and a link to the proton beam therpy service specification can be found below: Our advice for clinicians on the coronavirus is here, National Programmes of Care and Clinical Reference Groups, C03. In 2009, the UK government made the decision to set up a National NHS Proton Beam Therapy Service. You have the PBT there and the rest of your care is at your usual cancer treatment centre. The side effects depend on which part of your body is being treated. You have any further treatment you might need, such as chemotherapy or surgery, at your usual cancer treatment centre. Copyright © 2020 NAPT All Rights Reserved. The treatment rooms may have docks for you to plug in music players. They can hear you as well. UCLH will gradually ramp up PBT activity during 2021. Your radiographers might ask you to fill out some questionnaires about your treatment and any side effects. For adults this includes cancers that develop at the base of the skull or near the spine. The assessment can take a few days. A proton beam therapy centre has also been operating in the UK delivering low energy proton therapy specifically for NHS patients with eye tumours at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust in Merseyside. They can only be seen under a special microscope. When complete the two centres will each treat up to 750 patients every year. The government committed £250 million capital investment for both NHS proton beam therapy centres. Up until very recently everyone needing high energy proton beam therapy had to go abroad for treatment. A small number of people in South Wales may have proton beam therapy on the NHS at the Rutherford Cancer Centre.