UK to get first three proton beam therapy centers in Cancer care

The UK is to get its first three proton beam therapy centres in what is being hailed as a cancer treatment milestone.
The centres will open in Cardiff, London and Northumberland by 2017, with the first, in Cardiff, becoming operational next year.
The announcement comes after the parents of brain cancer survivor Ashya King told how the five-year-old made a “miracle” recovery after receiving proton beam therapy in Prague in the Czech Republic. Brett and Naghmeh King prompted an international police hunt in August when they took Ashya from a Southampton hospital against doctors’ wishes.
London granted permission for them to seek proton beam therapy at a center in Prague. The therapy was not initially offered on the NHS, although the health service later agreed to fund it.
Proton beam therapy limits the collateral damage of radiation to other vital organs, such as the heart and liver in Ashya King’s case. It also said to have a lower risk of side effects.
The new UK centers will be available for NHS patients from England, Scotland and Wales, patients with private health insurance and self-paying patients.