Low-Energy Proton Facility

Description

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is looking to procure an upgrade to its current low-energy proton facility on the Wirral site. The National Eye Proton Therapy Centre at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre is the only provider of proton beam therapy for ocular tumours in the NHS. It has been operational for over 30 years and has treated more than 3,000 patients with proton beam therapy. The current service treats on average more than 250 patients annually (300 patients were treated in 2019/20) and is a world leader in the field. The cyclotron, manufactured by Scanditronix (Model: MC-62 PF isochronous cyclotron), was installed at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre's Wirral site in 1984 and remains reliable. Many of the major equipment components remain from the late 1980s and are therefore more than 30 years old. The hardware and associated software used in the low energy eye proton service are mostly bespoke, non CE-marked, and developed by the in-house engineering and physics team during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Service support from the original manufacturer ceased in 2009, and sales of spares, on a 'best endeavours' basis, ended in August 2017. Whilst the main accelerating structures are of a robust and reliable design, a number of system, sub-system and component choices in the current technology that would not be favoured if the machine was specified and built in 2021. More advanced technologies, improved manufacturing processes, enhanced monitoring diagnostics and instrumentation are now commercially available. The main areas for upgrade relate to the control system and include the cyclotron control system, dosimetry monitoring and control system, programmable logic controller and human machine interface.