The UK is to get its first three proton beam therapy centres in what is being hailed as a cancer treatment milestone.
The centres in Cardiff, London and Northumberland will be open by 2017 and the first - Cardiff - will be operational next year. Treatment will be available for NHS patients in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as medically insured private patients and self-paying patients.
The announcement comes after the parents of brain cancer survivor Ashya King told how the five-year-old made a ''miracle'' recovery after receiving proton beam therapy which was initially not available to him on the NHS. Brett and Naghmeh King, from Hampshire, sparked an international manhunt after taking their son for treatment in Prague without the consent of doctors.
Professor Gordon McVie, chair of Cardiff-based Proton Partners International Ltd, which is opening the centres, said: "The creation of these centres will go a long way to ensuring the very best of treatment is available in the UK."
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