Skin cancer UK first for hospital

The TOPEX machine can be moved around easily

Skin cancer patients at a hospital in Suffolk will be the first in the UK to be given a new radiotherapy treatment.

The £80,000 TOPEX machine uses X-ray technology and is compact and flexible so it can also be used to treat patients in wheelchairs.

Ipswich Hospital said the machine halved treatment time and would enable staff to treat more patients each day.

The hospital treated about 80 skin cancers in 2008 and is due to use TOPEX for the first time next week.

Radiographer Dale Fowler said: "The machine is very small and manoeuvrable so we can easily position it to suit the patient and as most of our patients are elderly this is important as it makes everything less daunting for them.

"It allows patients to be more comfortable during their treatment as we can adapt the machine around the person."

Ipswich Hospital was one of the first radiotherapy centres in the UK to introduce intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) in 2001.