Addenbrooke's to be regional centre for pancreatic cancer surgery
15 October 2009
The new specialised team, based at Addenbrooke's, will lead a network of local specialist teams serving Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, north-east Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk – covering a population of around 3.2 million people.
Dr Rory Harvey, Consultant Physician at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust, and Chair of the pancreatic cancer project steering group, said:
"This is the right decision for the people who face battle with this killer disease. Pancreatic cancer is relatively rare but has one of the lowest survival rates of any cancer. It requires highly specialised clinical skills and technology to treat it successfully and we can best achieve this by building up a centre of experts and surgical facilities to lead the region."
"However, most patients with pancreatic cancer will still receive their care at their local hospital. For the very small number of patients, who are eligible for surgery, the best available specialised techniques will be offered by the team in Addenbrooke's. It is thought that up to 40 people will need to travel to Cambridge, where before they may have gone to Ipswich or Norwich. Local teams will continue to do other types of pancreatic and gastro-intestinal surgery."
The decision was informed by two service reviews led by an independent expert and by feedback from four months of consultation with hospitals, community groups and people in the East of England.
Based on international evidence, the national guidance requires that a designated surgical centre should serve a population of 2-4 million people. The reason for this is that the surgical team should have the experience of more than 200 cases a year. This ensures that the team maintains its specialist skills and continues to apply the latest medical techniques so that patients have the best possible chances of survival.
Currently, there are teams providing pancreatic cancer surgery in Cambridge, Ipswich and Norwich, but none of these units can attract sufficient numbers of patients to deliver the greatest possible chance of survival.
The proposal to designate a specialised centre and establish a network was strongly supported by those who were affected by cancer, many of whom urged the local NHS to get the centre and network up and running as quickly as possible.
Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival chances of any cancer. Currently in the UK, only around 13% of patients survive beyond 12 months after diagnosis and only 2%-3% of patients survive beyond five years.
