Patient is cancer treatment pioneer
A CANCER patient from Muswell Hill is one of the first in the country to undergo pioneering radiotherapy treatment.
Jet Payne, of Colney Hatch Lane, woke up one day in April last year with double vision only to discover she had an aggressive brain tumour pressing on her optic nerves.
But she has now made medical history with the new two-minute treatment, said to be up to eight times quicker and far more comfortable than traditional methods.
The 24-year-old arts magazine editor said: "The treatment is very quick and that's a good thing. I just want everything to be back to normal again and I am looking forward to continuing with my life.
"I woke up one morning with double vision. I thought it was a trivial sinus infection, I never for a moment thought it could be something this serious."
Miss Payne was doing voluntary work for galleries and writing for her magazine The Arts Pneumonia when she was diagnosed with the benign growth and told it was likely to spread and worsen.
She is one of two female patients at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, part of University College London Hospital (UCLH), to use the RapidArc technology.
The treatment requires her to wear a mask over her face, which allows for greater precision and makes it less likely she will move during surgery.
Susan Short, consultant clinical oncologist in charge of the brain unit at UCLH, said: "RapidArc performed very satisfactorily in its first treatments. The radiotherapy department is impressed and it is a straightforward treat-ment from the patient's point of view. We won't know yet whether it has been successful in shrinking the tumours as it can take some time to determine that, but it is a more comfortable treatment for our patients.
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Muswell Hill
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