A five-year-old brain cancer patient has received pioneering treatment using a £4.1 million radiotherapy robot at a London “adult” cancer hospital.
Harry Parkes is the first child to be operated on under general anaesthetic by doctors using the CyberKnife machine at the Royal Marsden’s Chelsea site.
The case was unusual as paediatric patients are usually treated at the Marsden’s Sutton base and because Harry had to be anaesthetised to make sure that he would not move during the 45-minute treatment.
The robot, which fires X-ray beams accurate to 0.5mm, is able to “sterilise” an area after a tumour is taken out by removing microscopic cancerous cells not spotted by surgeons.
“What CyberKnife allows us to do is treat a very small part of the brain to a very high dose,” said consultant oncologist Dr Henry Mandeville.
“There is published evidence that giving further radiation to where the tumour had occurred can reduce the risk of it coming back,” he added.
“CyberKnife is especially good when you are treating very small lesions, usually less than 3cm in size. Particularly for recurrent tumours, it provides us with a very exciting option for treatment of these children.”
Harry, from Rochester, Kent, was diagnosed with cancer at 18 months old.
He has had three brain operations at King’s College Hospital, Denmark Hill, and was sent to the US for three months for proton beam therapy.
But after he relapsed following the visit to Oklahoma, the Marsden offered his parents, Neal Parkes and Amanda Cobb, the option of CyberKnife.
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In a major logistical challenge, about 20 Marsden specialists were transferred from Sutton to Chelsea for his treatment. The hospital has now used CyberKnife on eight children with cancer.
The machine, bought by the Marsden’s charity, was shown to hospital patron the Duke of Cambridge during his visit last November.
Mr Parkes said he was “excited” to hear that the CyberKnife treatment was available for his son.
“You don’t want to hear the worst —that they can’t do anything else for you,” he said. “They still believe they can help Harry. They will pull out all the stops to help you. They never give up.”
Dr Mandeville said of the treatment, which was carried out in September but revealed today: “So far he has done very well following the treatment. We will continue to monitor him.”