Major drive in cancer care and treatment

CANCER care services in Oldham are about to be transformed.

Plans to expand local services have been announced in a three-year blue print covering everything from research, diagnostics and clinical support, to treatment and palliative care.

The plans have been formulated by Pennine Acute Trust, which runs hospitals in Oldham, Rochdale, North Manchester and Bury.

The Royal Oldham Hospital has already joined forces with the Christie Hospital to bring a new £17 million radiotherapy unit to the borough.

It will be a huge step forward in cancer treatment available in Oldham when the centre opens early next year, and is a catalyst for some of the new services health bosses plan to bring over the next three years.

The blueprint promises more access to chemotherapy locally, with the possibility of it being administered in patients’ homes or in clinics outside hospital.

A new “cold cap” service will be established at the Royal Oldham Hospital to help patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer retain their hair by keeping the head cold to prevent drugs in the bloodstream reaching the scalp.

A one-stop prostate clinic will be set up in Oldham, and all haematology inpatients across the Pennine area will receive chemotherapy at Oldham, although day case and outpatient services will be retained at North Manchester General.

Also planned is the appointment of a specialist clinical pharmacist to support cutting edge clinical trials and research into cancer, alongside a push to increase the number of patients who take part in clinical trials.

The trust will work with the Christie in a pilot study looking at survival rates, and a specialist inpatient head and neck cancer service will be developed at North Manchester.

Unveiling the blueprint, Juliette Mottram, lead cancer manager for Pennine Acute Trust, said: “This strategy outlines our plans and commitment for the development of cancer services for our patients over the next three years.”

The four most common cancers are breast, lung, colorectal and prostate, which collectively account for more than half of all new cases.

In 2008, breast cancer accounted for one in three newly diagnosed cases of cancer in women, and prostrate cancer was diagnosed in one in four new cancers in men.

Advances in treatment mean that survival rates for cancers overall are improving — for breast cancer, eight out of 10 will survive for five years or more after diagnosis, and two-thirds are likely to survive for at least 20 years.