Delighted: Peter Kysel says he would recommend the treatment “without hesitation”
Published: 14 February 2014
The
treatment — the most advanced form of radiotherapy — will not be
available in the UK until 2017 when £250 million proton-beam units are
opened at UCLH in Bloomsbury and the Christie Hospital in Manchester.
Proton-beam therapy is unique in cancer treatment because it can be targeted at tumours without damaging surrounding organs — a particular benefit for prostate cancer patients, who risk being left impotent and incontinent after conventional treatment.
Mr Kysel, 69, from Maida Vale, believes he will be able to recoup some or all of the £17,000 cost by taking advantage of a European Union directive on cross-border healthcare, which came into effect in England last October. “I understand that within the EU they have passed legislation which gives us the right to be treated in any country of the EU,” he said.
“I’m going to test whether this works to see whether it’s political hot air, or whether the country is going to do what it signed up to do.”
Last August, he was told that his cancer had reached an “intermediate” stage and required treatment after three years of “active surveillance”.
The Royal Marsden in Chelsea offered him six months of hormone therapy, followed by two months of standard radiation. But he discovered that proton-beam therapy was available in Prague, where he was born, at far cheaper rates than in the US, where the NHS sends children with cancer. Last year, the NHS sent about 80 cancer patients abroad for treatment.
After initial treatment in Aachen, Germany, where three gold “grains” were fixed to his prostate to allow the proton beams to be targeted, he had 21 days of treatment at the Proton Therapy Centre in Prague.
“I had a completely active, normal life. I played golf, I played tennis, I went to the gym, I went swimming,” said Mr Kysel. “For the first two weeks there were no side effects. I was absolutely delighted with the treatment.”
Last month, he was told there was a 95 per cent chance the cancer would not return within five years. He said the cost of treatment was “stupidly low” and “astonishingly good value”.
“This is essentially 10 times less than patients would pay in the US,” he said. “I think the treatment I had been offered in the UK would have cost more than the treatment I had paid for abroad. I would recommend it without hesitation.”
Proton beam therapy can also be used on head, neck, eye and brain cancers as well as lung cancer, pancreatic and liver cancer, lymphoma and gastro-intestinal tumours. NHS rules state that patients can be treated in other EU countries “as long as the treatment is medically necessary and would be made available to you under the NHS”. Patients pay the bill but can reclaim costs “up to the amount the treatment would have cost under the NHS”.
A NHS England London spokeswoman confirmed claims could be made but that none had been received to date from patients in London.
Professor Manfred Herbst, health director of the Proton Therapy Centre, said: “We notice an increase in numbers from the UK, with patients like Peter having consulted doctors at home, but choosing to come to Prague because this treatment is not available to them on the NHS.
“While the NHS acknowledges the benefits of proton therapy and plans to build its own centres, many patients are given inferior treatments simply because the cost of sending patients to the US for this treatment – well over £100,000 - is too high.”
Proton-beam therapy is unique in cancer treatment because it can be targeted at tumours without damaging surrounding organs — a particular benefit for prostate cancer patients, who risk being left impotent and incontinent after conventional treatment.
Mr Kysel, 69, from Maida Vale, believes he will be able to recoup some or all of the £17,000 cost by taking advantage of a European Union directive on cross-border healthcare, which came into effect in England last October. “I understand that within the EU they have passed legislation which gives us the right to be treated in any country of the EU,” he said.
“I’m going to test whether this works to see whether it’s political hot air, or whether the country is going to do what it signed up to do.”
Last August, he was told that his cancer had reached an “intermediate” stage and required treatment after three years of “active surveillance”.
The Royal Marsden in Chelsea offered him six months of hormone therapy, followed by two months of standard radiation. But he discovered that proton-beam therapy was available in Prague, where he was born, at far cheaper rates than in the US, where the NHS sends children with cancer. Last year, the NHS sent about 80 cancer patients abroad for treatment.
After initial treatment in Aachen, Germany, where three gold “grains” were fixed to his prostate to allow the proton beams to be targeted, he had 21 days of treatment at the Proton Therapy Centre in Prague.
“I had a completely active, normal life. I played golf, I played tennis, I went to the gym, I went swimming,” said Mr Kysel. “For the first two weeks there were no side effects. I was absolutely delighted with the treatment.”
Last month, he was told there was a 95 per cent chance the cancer would not return within five years. He said the cost of treatment was “stupidly low” and “astonishingly good value”.
“This is essentially 10 times less than patients would pay in the US,” he said. “I think the treatment I had been offered in the UK would have cost more than the treatment I had paid for abroad. I would recommend it without hesitation.”
Proton beam therapy can also be used on head, neck, eye and brain cancers as well as lung cancer, pancreatic and liver cancer, lymphoma and gastro-intestinal tumours. NHS rules state that patients can be treated in other EU countries “as long as the treatment is medically necessary and would be made available to you under the NHS”. Patients pay the bill but can reclaim costs “up to the amount the treatment would have cost under the NHS”.
A NHS England London spokeswoman confirmed claims could be made but that none had been received to date from patients in London.
Professor Manfred Herbst, health director of the Proton Therapy Centre, said: “We notice an increase in numbers from the UK, with patients like Peter having consulted doctors at home, but choosing to come to Prague because this treatment is not available to them on the NHS.
“While the NHS acknowledges the benefits of proton therapy and plans to build its own centres, many patients are given inferior treatments simply because the cost of sending patients to the US for this treatment – well over £100,000 - is too high.”
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