A new £60m cancer unit, approved on July 4, will make Oxford a centre of excellence for treatment and research.

The state-of-the-art unit will be built at the Churchill Hospital in Headington, expanding the city's cancer department and strengthening its links with pioneering research into the disease.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced the go-ahead for the centre, which will provide quicker diagnosis and treatment for patients when it opens in 2007.

Cancer services will be transferred from the John Radcliffe Hospital, also in Headington, and the Radcliffe Infirmary in the city centre.

The new building, funded through the Private Finance Initiative, will include 18 extra in-patient medical beds, bringing the total to 65; 14 new chemotherapy places, increasing the number from 28 to 42; and 20 surgical beds -- there are none at the moment.

There will also be a new outpatient radiology department, a head and neck cancer surgery centre, three new operating theatres, and eight medical research beds.

David Highton, chief executive of the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Churchill, JR and Radcliffe Infirmary, said the go-ahead was good news for Oxfordshire patients.

"The trust already offers a wide range of nationally respected cancer services for patients, and guarantees that anyone referred by their GP with suspected cancer is seen by a consultant within two weeks. We have also halved the waiting times for breast cancer radiotherapy from 18 to nine weeks," he added.

"Our facilities for cancer patients are scattered and in ageing buildings. This new scheme will ensure we are able to provide faster, modern and high quality services for patients and to expand what we can do."

The centre will also be the focus of world-leading research and teaching, with support from Oxford University, Oxford Brookes University, Cancer Research UK and the Oxford-based National Translational Cancer Research Network.

At present, the ORH treats 3,000 radiotherapy patients from Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Northamptonshire every year.

Its cancer services also include screening and diagnosis, chemotherapy, surgery and breast reconstruction.

The trust is to receive two new radiography machines as part of £70m Government funding for cancer care equipment across the UK.

The linear accelerators, which cost £1m each, destroy tumours by precisely targeting high-energy radiation beams at them.

One of the accelerators will add to the stock of four machines already used at the Churchill's radiology department, while the other will replace an old one.

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