Cancer patients being treated by Barts Health Trust could be among the first to be treated with an ‘innovative’ form of radiotherapy treatment.

NHS England announced earlier this week that Barts has been chosen as one of the trusts treat patients with stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), as part their latest national evaluation programme.

The first centres began accepting patients this week.

NHS England has invested £15m over three years to assess the use of SABR through its Commissioning through Evaluation initiative, which will allow up to 750 new patients a year to access the treatment.

SABR is a modern, precise delivery technique of radiotherapy which delivers high doses of radiation, while limiting damage to surrounding healthy tissue.

Barts Health NHS Trust has been selected to evaluate the use of SABR in patients with Oligometastatic Disease, where cancer has spread to one or a limited number of other sites in the body, and is at a stage where localised treatments on these tumours may still significantly delay or even stop the progression of the cancer.

The evaluation will also extend to patients with Primary Liver Cancers (HCC) and Re-irradiation of the Pelvis and Spine.

SABR treatment will be administered to Barts Health patients through the CyberKnife facility at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, which was funded by the Freemasons of London, at a cost of £2.5million.