A PIONEERING cancer treatment is now being offered to patients at Colchester General Hospital.

The hospital has become the first in Essex and Suffolk to offer brachytherapy with needles for advanced cervical cancer.

It has offered standard brachytherapy without needles, which sees radioactive material moved directly into the tumour using tubes, for some time.

The new procedure has been introduced after staff completed specialist training and the hospital invested in new equipment.

The painless procedure sees radiation sent inside the body to destroy the cancer via thin, hollow needles.

It is used to treat advanced cases where cancerous cells have spread outside the cervix to other organs.

Before a patient can have the treatment, they must first receive a five-week course of radiotherapy, which attacks the cancerous cells from outside the body.

To be effective, brachytherapy with needles must be carried out as soon as this radiotherapy is complete.

The first patient to receive brachytherapy with needles in Colchester completed her treatment in March, and is now making a good recovery.

Dr Rana Mahmood, consultant clinical oncologist and clinical director at Colchester General Hospital, said: “We are delighted we are now able to offer this highly precise procedure, which is the only way to treat advanced cervical cancer.

“Brachytherapy works by complementing the radiotherapy which is delivered outside the body. The needles allow us to direct radiation specifically into the areas where the cancerous cells have spread, in turn destroying them without impacting on healthy surrounding tissue.

"The procedure is completely painless, and does not cause any side effects.

“We hope we will soon be able to offer brachytherapy with needles to men with prostate cancer, which means we will be able to treat them without major surgery, in turn improving outcomes while also speeding up their recovery.”

Patients who live outside the Colchester catchment area are able to have radiotherapy at their local hospital before transferring to Turner Road for their brachytherapy.