Swansea's Singleton Hospital fast-tracks breast cancer breakthrough

Patients with breast cancer will receive higher doses of radiotherapy

Breast cancer patients in Swansea are set to benefit from a breakthrough treatment.

Singleton Hospital has fast-tracked an approach which allows higher doses of radiotherapy to be delivered safely.

Patients previously had to make the round trip from as far as Aberystwyth every day for 15 days.

But the new treatment, developed at the South West Wales Cancer Centre, will be spread across only five days.

A £12m investment has been made in new equipment at the radiotherapy department, funded by the Welsh Government and Swansea Bay University Health Board.

Cutting treatment times could allow the centre to treat more patients every year.

'Coronavirus the catalyst'

Five years ago, the centre was selected to take part in a trial known as Fast Forward and recruited 74 patients to take part.

Following the results of the trial, the treatment was fast-tracked to become the hospital's standard radiotherapy approach.

Head of radiotherapy physics Dr Ryan Lewis said the coronavirus outbreak had been the catalyst for the rapid pace of change.

"Cancer services and radiotherapy in particular have had to continue during the pandemic," he said.

"As most surgical services had stopped, there was an increased need for some patients to receive radiotherapy instead.

"Covid-19 forced us to bring forward the change to five-day breast treatments, which was not due to happen until later in the year."

He said the five-day approach will be how most breast cancer cases would be treated from now on.

"Reducing the number of visits will hopefully increase capacity and enable us to treat more patients each year," he added.