On 18 November Dr Gil Lederman, the renowned US pioneer in cancer and brain tumour treatment, visited the Sandford Education Centre, Keynsham Road, Cheltenham and gave an interactive talk to over 70 people.  The intention was to tell laymen and professionals about his latest treatment techniques and results. 

Dr Lederman began by saying that stereotactic body radiosurgery offers the possibility of treatment for cancers as diverse as benign and malignant tumours of the brain as well as cancers of the chest, abdomen and pelvis, including those of the lung, mediastinum, lymph nodes, liver, pancreas, kidney, gynaecological and urological sites.

He has also treated melanomas, sarcomas and kidney cancers.  The success rate, meaning the control of the cancer in the treated site, is high.  The durability of treatment effectiveness in the treated field is usually for the remainder of the patient’s life.  The treatment involves fractionated stereotactic radiosurgery – meaning that the dose is divided into several portions so as to make the technique safer and easier to tolerate.

Stereotactic radiosurgery uses highly focused radiation often with higher doses than conventional radiotherapy.  As a result, the treatment is in general more effective and can often be used even when prior chemotherapy, radiation, or surgery has been unsuccessful. 

Dr Lederman took various questions from attendees, including one about the availability of this type of treatment in the UK.  Dr Sean Elyan, the Medical Director of the Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust said that the treatment is available at six hospitals in England and Scotland.  These hospitals are:

• The Royal Marsden Hospital in London
• The Bristol Royal Infirmary
• St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London
• Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge
• Clatterbridge Hospital in the Wirral
• Western General Hospital in Edinburgh

RCF member Linda Taylor, who is a former patient of Dr Lederman, spoke of her cancer journey and the fact that conventional radiotherapy would not have been suitable in her particular case, which is why she had treatment in America.  It would appear that in the UK the treatment is currently only available for brain, head and neck cancers.

A member of the audience asked Linda why stereotactic radiosurgery is not available in the UK for all of the tumour sites.  Linda explained that she discussed the situation with Professor Mike Richards at a Cancer Conference held at Cheltenham Racecourse.  He explained that previous Governments had not invested sufficiently in radiotherapy treatments, thinking that chemotherapy treatments were more beneficial for patients.  However, the good news is that the NHS is currently doubling the number of radiotherapist training places and this will go some way towards making different types of radiotherapy treatments available.

We are grateful to RCF member Linda Taylor for sending us details of Dr Lederman’s talk.