Information - Our current projects
Making everything better
Your support helps us to pay for projects that could dramatically
improve treatment for our patients.
- Equipment: High tech modern equipment can provide higher quality
diagnoses and better treatment outcomes than before.
- Innovation: Pioneering research projects can lead to clinical
trials of new treatments.
- Expertise: Training and developing the cancer specialists of the
future will ensure that patients get the best treatment and care
possible.
Here are details on just some of the projects we need to fund, including our robot which we have been able to introduce thanks to our supporters.
This information is by no means exhaustive. We also have other
priority projects constantly in need of funding. Please contact
any member of the appeals team who will be pleased to provide more
information.
A new £35 million patient treatment centre
Artists impression of patient treatment centre Construction work is due to
start later this year on our new £35 million patient treatment
centre which is set to open in
2010.
This landmark building will replace
our current clinical trials unit and will give
us the largest early clinical trials unit in the
world where the latest and most advanced
cancer treatments will be pioneered.
The building will also be home to an
expanded world class chemotherapy unit,
as well as a new private patients unit,
from which the profits will be invested to
develop our NHS services for all patients.
Professor Malcolm Ranson, head of our
clinical trials unit, said: “This unit will make
us a global leader in cancer research. Most
importantly it will bring substantial benefit
to local people because they will be among
the first in the world to access the latest
and most innovative treatments for cancer
as they become available, giving them the
best possible chance of survival.”
Clinical trials are research studies to find better ways to prevent, diagnose, or treat
cancer. They aim to find out if a new
treatment is safe, has side-effects, and
works better than established treatments.
Around 2,400 patients a year will be
treated at our new clinical trials unit –
double the number we currently treat. The
centre will also include a large laboratory
for biomarker research. Biomarkers are
beginning to play a critical role in drug
development and can predict how patients
will respond to a drug. It is hoped that
this research will lead to more effective
treatment with improved outcomes and
more lives saved.
The new patient treatment centre will also
allow us to build on the major changes that are taking place in the way chemotherapy
treatments are given.
Used alongside radiotherapy and surgery,
chemotherapy is the use of drugs to
destroy cancer cells. We plan to increase
our treatments from 30,000 to 36,000
per year and to do this we need the best
possible facilities for our patients.
The new building will include around
70 beds and 61 treatment chairs where
patients are given their chemotherapy,
10 consulting suites, a phlebotomy room
for blood tests, a pharmacy and two
laboratories.
Two new radiotherapy centres
Artists impression of our Oldham centre Radiotherapy is a specialist
procedure which uses high
energy radiation beams to
destroy cancerous cells. Our
site in south Manchester,
is currently the only centre
in Greater Manchester and
Cheshire to provide it. We have
one of the largest radiotherapy
departments in the world,
with 12 radiotherapy machines
delivering more than 96,000
treatments every year.
Patients having radiotherapy treatment
usually have to travel on a daily basis to
our hospital – sometimes for up to five
weeks or longer. Those long journeys can
be a tremendous pressure, both physically
and mentally, on patients and their families – who are already going through a tough
time due to their cancer diagnosis and
treatment.
We are planning to create a network of
radiotherapy centres, making treatment
more accessible for everyone. Eventually
most people in the region
will be within 45 minutes
of a state-of-the-art Christie
radiotherapy centre.
Our new centres will mean
patients will be able to
access first class radiotherapy
treatments from our experts –
but much closer to home. The
first new Christie centres will
open in Oldham and Salford.
Our new centres will both have two £1.3
million radiotherapy machines, and other
high-tech equipment. Christie doctors,
specialist radiographers, nurses and other
medical experts will be able to treat 70
people a day who would have otherwise
had to make the trip to the Christie site
in south Manchester – that’s 18,000
treatments a year.
The first £17 million facility at the Royal
Oldham Hospital is due to open in
November in 2009. This new site will save out patients the equivalent of travelling to the moon and back in just one year!
Meet 'da Vinci S' our Robot
Meet Da Vinci S our robot Thanks to the incredible generosity of our supporters we have been able to introduce the latest advancement in robotic technology.
Using this technology, the surgeon has a 3D view of the operation site whilst seated at a console. Tiny wristed instruments are manoeuvred in response to the surgeon's hand movements.
Evidence suggests that the increased precision when using this technology means that more patients than ever before can expect a complete recovery from cancer that responds to surgery.