Royal Marsden’s £70m bid to boost war on cancer with new centre

An artist's impression of the development

A world-leading cancer research centre has submitted plans for a £70 million building that aims to accelerate breakthroughs in patient care.

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust wants to consolidate its existing hospital buildings and laboratories near Sutton, south London, into the state-of-the-art six-storey property.

If approved, the building — called the Oak Cancer Centre — will bring together the 330 researchers currently dispersed across the site in “outdated” Sixties buildings. They will work alongside patients with challenging and rare cancers to speed up the development of new treatments.

Chief executive Cally Palmer said: “The centre will enable us to help local people with cancer for decades to come, and to discover breakthroughs that will benefit patients not just in and around Sutton, but throughout the UK and around the world.” The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity is raising £70 million to pay for the building which will include a hi-tech rapid diagnostic centre that will save lives by detecting the disease earlier.

An artist's impression of the development

It will also have a medical day unit so that chemotherapy patients can rest and an expanded urgent care centre so fewer patients have to be sent to local A&E departments.

A full planning application has been submitted to Sutton council, which will make a decision later this year.

The Marsden originally opened in Westminster in 1851 as the world’s first hospital dedicated to cancer treatment and research. Today it has two sites in Chelsea and Sutton.

Along with its academic partner, The Institute of Cancer Research, the Marsden is the largest cancer centre in Europe, treating more than 50,000 NHS and private patients every year. The development is part of the London Cancer Hub — a long-running project to transform the Sutton site into a £1 billion cancer research campus.

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