September 10, 2014

proton beam therapy

The SMC hosted a briefing with five experts about proton beam therapy: what it is, how it works, who it’s appropriate for and under what circumstances.

Proton beam therapy has been brought to the attention of the public and the media through the case of Ashya King, a child with medulloblastoma, and two UK centres aim to treat patients with proton beam therapy by 2018. Panellists were not able to answer questions specifically about Ashya King’s care programme, but spoke more generally about the effectiveness of PBT.

Speakers:

Dr Adrian Crellin, NHS England, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, and NIHR Clinical Lead for Radiotherapy

Dr Simon Jolly, University Lecturer in Accelerated Physics, and on National Technical Advisory Group for Proton Beam Therapy

Prof Roger Taylor, Professor of Clinical Oncology at Swansea University, and Vice President of Clinical Oncology at the Royal College of Radiologists

Dr Yen-Ching Chang, Consultant in Clinical Oncology at UCLH and Clinical Lead for proton project at UCLH

Prof Barry Pizer, Consultant Paediatric Oncologist at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and Honorary Professor at University of Liverpool

Prof Gary Royle, Professor of Medical Radiation Physics at UCL, and research lead for Proton Beam Therapy at UCLH