Rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), The Royal Marsden is ranked as one of the leading cancer centres in the world. It operates from two centres – one in Chelsea, London, and one in Sutton, Surrey – as well as its treatment and diagnostic facility, The Royal Marsden Private Care at Cavendish Square, situated in the capital’s world-renowned Harley Street Medical Area. The Royal Marsden is a centre of excellence with an international reputation for ground-breaking research and pioneering the very latest in cancer treatments and technologies.
Together with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, The Royal Marsden is Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer centre, with unrivalled cancer expertise and over 2,500 cancer specialists who cover the rarest and most complex cases. Surgical teams at The Royal Marsden are innovators in their field and the hospital’s radiotherapy department is one of the largest in the UK, delivering more than 75,000 treatments every year.
The Royal Marsden Private Care offers an award-winning service, having won the LaingBuisson Best Hospital Award three times. Private patients are offered additional benefits, including a hotel-style service, single ensuite rooms and direct access to their treating consultant. A specialist International Advocate Service ensures that all the needs of overseas patients are met, both from a cultural perspective and in terms of treatment and care. They work closely with a multinational team of interpreters, including a dedicated Arabic Advocate Service, which can offer one-to-one translations.
HRH Prince William, Prince of Wales, has been President of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust for 16 years and regularly visits the hospital to meet with staff and patients. Earlier this year he returned to the hospital, to open the brand-new Oak Cancer Cantre, funded by The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity, at our Sutton hospital. This state-of-the-art research and treatment facility will help facilitate the co-location of research teams to accelerate the development of new treatments, offering hope for cancer patients worldwide.
The hospital has an international research reputation, with experts revolutionising the way in which cancer treatment and care is provided, to help extend and improve the lives of people with cancer in the UK and across the world. Experts regularly present at international conferences and are representatives on committees such as the European Society of Medical Oncology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
Professor David Cunningham, Director of Clinical Research at The Royal Marsden, is leading an innovative trial that aims to determine whether patients with colorectal cancer can be spared unnecessary chemotherapy. The TRACC study evaluates the use of circulating tumour DNA to guide chemotherapy treatment decisions after surgery in patients with resected early‑stage colorectal cancer. The blood test could prevent unnecessary chemotherapy in these patients.
Professor Cunningham says: “Patients with high-risk colorectal cancer can benefit from chemotherapy after surgery but some patients will never relapse, even without chemotherapy, and this clinical trial is designed to use a blood test to identify the group of patients who need chemotherapy and those who will remain cancer free with surgery alone. The results of this trial could help us tailor treatment decisions to benefit patients and reduce the side effects of chemotherapy.”
Professor Nicholas van As, Medical Director and Consultant Clinical Oncologist at The Royal Marsden specialises in prostate cancer and stereotactic and image-guided radiotherapy. Results from the recent PACE B trial, led by Professor van As, showed that people with intermediate-risk, localised prostate cancer can be treated as effectively using fewer and higher doses of radiation therapy delivered over five treatment sessions as they can with lower doses delivered over several weeks.
“At The Royal Marsden we are focused on developing smarter, better and kinder treatments for patients across the UK and internationally,” says Professor van As. “Standard radiation treatment is already highly effective and is very well tolerated in people with localised prostate cancer, but for patients to have this treatment delivered just as effectively in five days, as opposed to four weeks, is hugely significant.”
Personalised care is at the heart of The Royal Marsden’s approach and its unique multidisciplinary model ensures that cancer patients receive the highest standards of care. Up to 35 specialists – including surgeons, medical oncologists, radiotherapists, pathologists, nurses and radiologists – attend weekly multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings to develop personalised treatment plans for each patient.
The Royal Marsden is continually working to improve early diagnosis for patients to help save more lives – from carrying out pioneering genetic sequencing to identifying mutations that mean an individual has a higher risk of developing cancer, through to regular screenings of those with a genetic pre-disposition to certain cancers.
Last year, The Royal Marsden Private Care launched a new lung health-check clinic, which aims to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage, so that patients can be treated much more effectively, or even cured. The new service is led by Dr Richard Lee, Consultant Physician in Respiratory Medicine and Champion for Early Diagnosis, who also jointly leads the NHS England National Targeted Lung Health Check programme and helped develop the model for lung health checks. These checks, available in this new service, have been rolled out at 25 pilot NHS sites, but are not yet available widely. The service will primarily be run from The Royal Marsden Private Care at Cavendish Square.
Last year, The Royal Marsden began offering a state‑of‑the‑art liquid biopsy testing facility for cancer clinical diagnostics and research, with Guardant Health, the first partnership of its kind in the UK. The Marsden360 liquid biopsy test provides comprehensive solid tumour profiling in advanced cancers, allowing clinicians to personalise treatments more accurately. From a simple blood sample, liquid biopsies identify the genetic changes in DNA. This innovative technology will ensure the cancers of many patients are detected, diagnosed and analysed faster. Initially, the service will be available for private and clinical trial patients being treated at The Royal Marsden.
Bringing personalised care to central London, The Royal Marsden Private Care at Cavendish Square offers private patients outstanding facilities, world-class expertise and a rapid diagnostic service. Housed within an Edwardian listed building, this research-led, diagnostic, outpatient and treatment facility is part of The Royal Marsden Private Care’s service provision.
Cavendish Square opened its doors in April 2021 and welcomed 2,635 new outpatients from over 35 countries in the first two years after opening, providing them with world-class cancer treatment and care. One hundred per cent of patients recently rated their care as excellent or very good.
Patients have fast and direct access to world-leading diagnostic and research-active consultants, who will personally oversee every aspect of their treatment plan. Experts at Cavendish Square specialise in a full range of cancer services across all the main tumour groups, with other clinical specialties offered including genetics, plastic surgery and reconstruction, and pain management. The centre is also home to a minor procedure suite and a medical day unit with bespoke treatment bays, which will provide the highest level of patient-focused care for UK and overseas patients who are receiving some of the most advanced cancer treatments.
“Patients from around the world have benefited from the centre’s facilities, safe in the knowledge that everything in Cavendish Square is underpinned by The Royal Marsden’s world-leading standards of cancer care,” says Mark Hawken, Managing Director of The Royal Marsden Private Care. “Patients seeking the very best private cancer diagnostics and treatment know that we operate to the strictest safety standards and governance.”
For more information about The Royal Marsden Private Care or to refer a patient, please:
Visit: www.royalmarsden.nhs.uk/private
Email: int@rmh.nhs.uk
Call: +44 (0)20 7808 2063
