Proton Partners granted consent for £35m facility

Proton Partners International, the Welsh company behind the Rutherford Cancer Centre in Newport, has received planning permission to build a £35m cancer treatment centre in Liverpool.The proposed centre is earmarked for a site in the new £1bn Paddington Village scheme, part of Knowledge Quarter Liverpool.The Liverpool oncology centre, which will be known as the Rutherford Cancer Centre North West, aims to provide an all-encompassing cancer service for patients, offering proton beam therapy, as well as chemotherapy, traditional radiotherapy and imaging. It is expected that conventional treatments will be available in 2018 and proton beam therapy in 2019.Proton Partners International is also building a genomics research centre at the Life Sciences Accelerator building in Liverpool, which will be the first part of a health campus set to surround the £335m new Royal Liverpool Hospital. The genomics programme will support Proton Partners International’s broader research work with the University of Liverpool’s physics department.Proton Partners International is currently developing three other UK cancer centres, in Newport, Northumberland and Reading, with further sites under consideration. The Newport centre recently opened to receive patient referrals for chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and the proton beam therapy system is currently undergoing installation.