Cancer Specialists Say Radiotherapy Should no Longer be the Cinderella of Cancer Treatment

LONDON, September 7, 2010 - Radiotherapy specialist, CancerPartnersUK, is today lobbying
MPs and health officials about the poor state of radiotherapy services in the
UK. The company has today published a comprehensive report, Radiotherapy - A
radical plan for Britain, co-authored by Professor Karol Sikora with input
from senior oncologists, which demonstrates how the UK has fallen behind with
uptake of new technology, such as IMRT and IGRT, but at the same time shows
how relatively simple it would be to improve provision across the country.

The CancerPartnersUK report coincides with the publication
today of a report by Cancer Research UK - Poor Public Awareness Highlights
Radiotherapy's Cinderella Status which states that there is a general lack of
awareness by the public of how good radiotherapy is at treating cancer.
Despite the number of people receiving radiotherapy in the UK increasing by
75% since 2000, 12% of cancer patients who might benefit from radiotherapy
will not receive it. It says that UK healthcare trusts are failing to offer
equal opportunities for patients to receive radiotherapy.

Rupert Cockcroft CEO of CancerPartners UK says: "Poor value is
attached to radiotherapy as a major cancer treatment, and there is serious
under-provision of radiotherapy in certain parts of the country resulting in
a postcode lottery."

CancerPartners UK has demonstrated that it is possible to
rapidly create a growing network of centres, developing a centre in 8 months
from the first construction day to treating the first patient. We can help
support the local areas by the delivery of cancer treatment technologies such
as, Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) and Image guided radiotherapy
(IGRT) in purpose built centres. Mr Cockcroft adds: "We deliver our models
with patient at the heart of the service, valuing their time, comfort and
delivering state-of-the-art treatment."

CancerPartners UK has now opened three image guided
radiotherapy centres in the UK and a fourth is under construction with
several more planned for next year. At these centres we treat cancer patients
with many types of cancer, from the most common, such as breast cancers and
prostate cancer, to more rare and secondary forms such as lung & liver
cancer.

We believe this strategy could deliver better value for money
and give patients choices which will result in an inevitable improvement in
quality and access without an increase in cost. This strategy also fits with
the ambitious plans outlined in the recent Department of Health White Paper
Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS in which the Government has pledged
to make the NHS more accountable, freeing staff from excessive bureaucracy
and judging success on clinical outcomes.

Professor Karol Sikora, Medical Director of CancerPartners UK
says: "Opening up the NHS to new providers of services has never been more
important and transforming the provision of cancer care requires imaginative
solutions. Britain has a huge resource of dedicated, talented and well
trained staff - harnessing their innovative energy is vital to achieve a
world class service for future cancer patients

Radiotherapy - A Radical Plan for Britain is available on the
CancerPartnersUK website

For more information please contact:

Tina Dunworth / Rupert Cockcroft, +44(0)20-8236-9040
or www.cancerpartnersuk.org

For more information about Cancer ResearchUK visit
www.cancerresearchuk.org

Link to Gillies McKenna discussing new forms of radiotherapy:
streamservice.sc-streaming.com

For more information please contact: Tina Dunworth / Rupert Cockcroft, +44(0)20-8236-9040 / +44(0)7887-716936