“ACORRN – Action Radiotherapy” is first radiotherapy charity in UK

A new national charity which aims to help the fight against cancer is launched at Westminster today (Tue July 13).

ACORRN (Academic Clinical Oncology and Radiobiology Research Network) – Action Radiotherapy wants to raise £5m to improve radiotherapy treatment for patients.

Demand for radiotherapy services is expected to almost double over the next few years – yet a mere six per cent of money spent on cancer research in the UK goes towards research to advance radiotherapy practice.

It means that Britain is now lagging behind other parts of Europe and the USA in terms of introducing vital new radiotherapy techniques and many patients are without access to state-of-the-art treatment.

ACORRN – Action Radiotherapy – the first UK-based radiotherapy charity - is therefore mounting a major fund-raising campaign with donations used to:

* Support the research network and maintain and develop the re-launched interactive website

*Give grants for research into improving radiotherapy treatments

* Work with patients to identify priorities and ensure their needs are met

* Increase the number of radiotherapy researchers and expert staff in the UK

* Help develop National Centres of Excellence in radiotherapy research and treatment

* Work with policy makers to prioritise radiotherapy research and clinical practice

A new interactive website (www.acorrn.org) has also been launched today (Tue, July 13) to meet the needs of researchers, staff and patients.
It allows more than 1,600 representatives from the medical profession – all members of the ACORRN network - to share expertise interactively as they look for safer ways to provide radiotherapy treatment and, in turn, cure more cancer patients. The charity works alongside all 62 cancer centres in the country. This means that anyone throughout the UK, regardless of where they live, will know their local treatment centre will have access to the best opinion and knowledge to improve their radiotherapy treatment.

Professor Pat Price, Chair of ACORRN said: “We’re working together with researchers, funders, policy makers, patients, the NHS and the private sector to improve radiotherapy services and treatments for all cancer patients.

“In this era of austerity we aim to cost effectively improve radiotherapy treatment. It is an important area of science but has been under-represented in recent years.

“The interactive web site allows members from related fields to share knowledge and make a step change in radiotherapy treatment in the UK.

“Our motto is that individually we are not as strong but together we can be competitive internationally. By networking we don’t have to spend that much money to make a big difference.”

ACORRN was established as an initiative of the National Cancer Research Institute and received an initial start-up grant. It proved so popular that it is now operating on a self-funding basis so has established the charity ACORRN - Action Radiotherapy to generate its own income to reach its £5m target to carry out its work.

Its fund-raising efforts are now swinging into action, with Trustees confident the value of radiotherapy to cancer sufferers will convince donors of the merits of supporting the charity.

These key facts back up the need to invest in radiotherapy:

* 1 in 3 people will get cancer at some point which means that every year 300,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer in the UK.

* 50 per cent of cancer patients will receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment and 40 per cent of these will be cured by radiotherapy.

* Radiotherapy is currently second only to surgery in its potential to cure cancer and small improvements in how radiotherapy is given could mean up to 20 per cent more patients are cured.

Reducing side effects among patients is another strong reason to support the charity. Radiotherapy uses X-rays and other radiation to kill cancer cells and special techniques must be used to avoid hitting healthy organs. Better treatment will help cut down the risk of side effects.

ACORRN’s work and future plans will be outlined at a special reception at the House of Lords at 6.30 pm tonight (Tue, July 13). It will be attended by Professor Norman Coleman, an international scientific adviser from the National Institute of Health in the USA.

* For more information and general enquiries visit www.acorrn.org or email info@acorrn.org

*Telephone 07850739184 for press enquiries associated with this press release.