All results for tag ‘Cyberknife’

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Please sign my petition to stop the South East Coast Specialised Commissioning Groups blanket ban on

Lesley Whiting
2nd February 2011 at 12:07
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Mount Vernon NHS Hospital purchased a Cyberknife Stereotactic radiotherapy machine, and started accepting patients in November 2010, but unfortunately only 28 Primary Care Trusts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland fund this treatment. The South East Coast Specialised Commissioning Group (who consider funding applications on behalf of PCT’s in Surrey, Sussex and Kent), have said they will not fund Cyberknife under any circumstance. This means that although this potentially lifesaving treatment is available, few patients can access it. This crazy situation is also set to become worse, because the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, St. James Hospital in Leeds and Derriford Hospital in Plymouth have also purchased it and will start accepting patients later this year.
PCT’s argue that there is no evidence that Cyberknife is better than conventional radiotherapy, and therefore the additional cost is not justified. But this ignores the fact that the reason patients are referred for Cyberknife in the first place is because conventional radiotherapy is not an option. If you have secondary tumours on the skull, or visceral organs, conventional radiotherapy just isn’t an option, because it would damage healthy tissue - whereas Cyberknife is so accurate that it causes very little damage.
The fact is that one in three people get cancer in the UK, so at some stage it could effect you or your loved one’s. So if you want to end this funding nonsense, please sign my petition( link below) [continue/comment...]
Tags: cyberknife (1) | nhs (2)