Spandau Ballet star opens revolutionary brain cancer centre at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London
The actor and Spandau Ballet singer Martin Kemp has opened the new London Gamma Knife Centre at world renowned St Bartholomew's Hospital in the City of London.
The state of the art Gamma Knife radio therapy machine is able to treat brain tumours with greater accuracy than before. The treatment centre is a £3 million joint venture between HCA, the owners of six leading private hospitals in London and the Barts and The London NHS Trust.
Martin Kemp is just about to leave the UK for a sell out tour with his reformed band Spandau Ballet. But as he told the audience after opening the London Gamma Knife centre, he is lucky to be alive.
Fourteen years ago Martin was in North America when he discovered a lump on the back of his head. He flew back home where doctors found he had two tumours, one of which was buried deep in his brain. The prognosis was not good.
Surgeons removed the larger tumour and put a metal plate in his skull but the second was in a position where an operation was going to be highly dangerous, possibly causing irreparable damage to his brain. Then Martin heard that Barts had a radio therapy machine which might be able to help him. He was treated there, the second tumour was destroyed and now he has had the 'all clear'.
"So opening this new Gamma Knife centre means a lot to me personally," said Martin. "I was very lucky and I know that this machine will be able to help many, many more people and give them the same chance that I got."
Gamma Knife, despite its name does not invasive treatment and after a detailed mapping of a patient's tumour using the latest MRI scanning technology, a three dimensional frame is fitted to the head of the patient to prevent movement and to ensure pinpoint accuracy for the radiotherapy beams generated by the Gamma Knife machine.
Neurosurgeon Mr Ian Sabin, who is clinical director of the London Gamma Knife Centre, said the new Centre would bring enormous benefits for patients. "The new machine is highly effective with a success rate of up to 95% for certain benign tumours. It also has a better success rate than surgery for secondary tumours in the brain."
"The numbers of people requesting this procedure as an alternative to traditional treatments will grow as more people become aware of its benefits," he said. "Most patients can come here, have their MRI and then have a local anaesthetic for the treatment and then be back at work next day."
In most cases Gamma Knife treatment is effective after a single dose and it can be used for many types of tumours, both malignant and benign.
The Gamma Knife centre at St Bartholomew's Hospital was funded and is run by HCA International Limited in a joint venture with the NHS hospital. HCA has the largest cancer diagnostic and treatment capability in the UK outside the NHS. Around seven hundred cancer specialists lead medical teams in its network of cancer centres in and around central London.
Patients of all ages with every type of cancer from leukaemia to skin cancer are treated using the latest drugs and HCA's cancer medical teams are supported by the world's newest technology including the Gamma Knife which is specifically for brain tumours.
But Gamma Knife is not the only new piece of technology available for patients. As part of a £200 million investment programme, HCA recently installed the revolutionary robotic CyberKnife radiotherapy machine which can treat tumours that were either difficult or impossible to treat before. Guided by two X-ray tracking cameras, Cyberknife moves with a patient's breathing rhythm and it can deliver beams of radiation from many angles avoiding damage to sensitive and nearby tissue. Tumours of the pancreas, liver, spine, lung and prostate are among the many inoperable cancers that can now be treated by this state of the art machine.
The HCA Cancer Network also four of the latest linear accelerator radiotherapy machines together with the very latest PET CT, Dual Source CT and MRI scanners that allow the fastest diagnostic resources for cancer patients. In fact HCA has the most modern and extensive cancer treatment facilities in the private sector in Europe.
The London Gamma Knife Centre is HCA's second joint cancer treatment venture with the NHS. It also has a world renowned blood and bone cancer treatment centre based on the 15th floor of University College Hospital, London. In addition, preparations are being made for a more new cancer centres in and around London and these will be opened over the next twelve months.