dedicated research facility.
Based at The Christie, the pioneering centre has already saved the NHS £60,000 per patient – and continues to drive innovation through its £6 million dedicated research facility.
PBT significantly improves radiotherapy targeting, meaning fewer side effects, faster recovery and better outcomes for patients.
It also enables targeting of tumours otherwise difficult to treat, such as those lying close to sensitive critical organs.
The therapy is particularly suited to children because the reduced radiation dose to healthy tissue means reduced risk of radiation-induced secondary cancers in later life.
UK’s first NHS high-energy PBT centres
Manchester experts guided the procurement of the UK’s very first NHS high-energy PBT centres. These opened in 2018 in Manchester and 2021 in London.
The research room in Manchester, funded by The Christie Charity, also offers a unique flexible capability which can emulate the clinical beam, innovate and future-proof treatments.
Being based in a clinical NHS facility enables a research pipeline to the clinic, allowing innovations to be rapidly translated and ensuring there is a clinical and patient need for the research being undertaken. While the research room helps keep the NHS proton therapy service at the cutting edge. The team are also working on ultra-high dose rate (FLASH) proton therapy which has the potential of reducing side effects and giving the treatment in much shorter times. This could revolutionise radiotherapy. Understanding the mechanisms behind this new technology and working hand in hand with the clinic to understand how it could be used demonstrates the power of the research room.
The centre is also home to a £6 million dedicated research hub. Here, around 30 researchers advance the delivery of PBT and work with clinical scientists and clinicians to ensure translation from research to innovative treatment. This includes developing new technologies to precisely determine where protons stop within the patient, enable the treatment of tumours in organs that move and biologically optimise and personalise the treatment of patients.
Our impact
The PBT centre’s research is all about the patients – and making their treatment even more effective.
Advancements developed in the research hub are adopted in the treatment centre to maintain state-of-the-art care, and will enable next-generation proton treatment with the potential to truly revolutionise radiotherapy.
Speak to our experts
Professor Karen Kirkby
Richard Rose Chair in Proton Therapy Physics
- International leading proton research and innovation to deliver direct patient benefits. Spans basic research, through to pre-clinical and translational research to clinical trials
Dr Hywel Owen
Accelerator Physics Group Leader, Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Understanding and development of new particle accelerator infrastructure
- Synchrotron radiation
- Inverse Compton scattering
- Particle therapy
Professor Robert Appleby
Professor in the Accelerator Physics Group
- Theoretical accelerator physics and beam dynamics
- Involved in Large Hadron Collider, specifically optics, collimation and machine protection