hope nobody needs it

[Clivia]

I really hope that none of you, your friends, your family needs it but the thread of a forum member made me want to share this link

www.rptc.de/en/

it's not a well known treament - but I, who is not a medical doctor and friends who are medical doctors see a great future in it. It's not airy fairy but sound German Hightech and science and it is funded by the German NHS so being referred by a British doctor the NHS will pay for it.  
Most German doctors speak English and they do have even English native speakers there.

[Greigster]

Very informative Clivia.

[tokari]

My daughter was diagnosed with a brain tumour in Feb 2012 and following a 17-hour op to remove the tumour, we were sent to Oklahoma City for 10 weeks so she could receive proton beam therapy to the tumour site. The way proton beam works is that it can be shaped to the exact size and shape of the tumour and causes less damage than "normal" radiotherapy to the surrounding tissue.

The NHS paid for the treatment and all the flights, accommodation and car hire costs whilst out there - we "just" had to pay our living costs. There must have been about 6 or 7 families from the UK getting treatment at the time.

The UK is looking at building two proton beam centres, which are hoped to be up and running by 2017.

[Clivia]

I hope your daughter is fine now tokari

I think Munich was the first proton therapy centre not only for research but also for treatment - I really hope that there will be more centres like that world wide

[Karma]

I'm going to tag deesigner I'm sure she'll be interested to find out more about this

[deesigner]

Thank you so much for this Clivia and Karma for tagging me in it. There are a couple of proton therapy centres in Europe, There's one in Budapest or Prague, can't remember which. I have discussed this treatment option with my consultant but it's no good for my small cell lung cancer, it may however be fantastic for my spinal cancers. Knowing there is now one in Germany that is covered by the NHS may just be the option that I will be looking for in the future.

There is currently 1 proton centre in the UK but this is only a small unit that can only reach into the body by about 1cm.

The proton is better for certain areas than normal radiotherapy because unlike standard radiotherapy it doesn't continue to work once it reaches the tumour outer limits therefore it is far less invasive and damaging to surrounding tissue. It doesn't work on large masses because the angle of the beam going is like a cone shape so for my small cell lung cancer it would damage far more tissue due to the amount of area it would have to cover. But for smaller enclosed areas it is proving to be amazing!

[Clivia]

all the very best wishes deesigner - as far as I know Munich was the first one that used proton therapy as a treatment.

there are also fairly cheap flights to Munich - as I am originally from Innsbruck - we fly quite regularly to Munich - surprisingly Singapore airlines is one of the cheapest

[deesigner]

Munich would be so easy to travel too thank you again. Currently my cancer is inactive in my spine as far as I'm aware. But it's great to know this is available and I will certainly be printing this off and giving it to my consultant when I see him in early April