STFC and Advanced Oncotherapy (LON:AVO) are collaborating in the construction of a proton therapy assembly and test facility at STFC’s Daresbury Laboratory, that will build on the technology at the heart of the Large Hadron Collider to develop treatments for patients with cancer.
Proton beams targeted precisely at cancerous tumours will limit damage to surrounding organs or tissue, produce fewer side effects and also offer the potential for higher disease-free survival rates. This therapy is most often used to treat brain tumours in young children whose organs and tissues are still developing, or cancers adjacent to critical part of the body (liver, lung, head and neck, prostate, breast).