The Princess of Wales visits the Royal Marsden Hopsital (Image: Russell Myers/ Reach PLC)
The Royal Marsden is an excellent choice for the Prince and as they take the next step in their deeply personal crusade against .
Opened in 1851, it was the world’s first dedicated to cancer diagnosis – and it has since built an impressive reputation as one of the world’s leading hubs for research into the disease.
The Royal Marsden works in partnership with the esteemed The Institute of Cancer Research. Together, the two organisations are ranked in the top five cancer centres in the world for the impact of their work, treating over 59,000 and private patients every year.
Just last week, a team at the Royal Marsden revealed findings from a study trialling a new robot-guided “smart biopsy” technique.
Medics used advanced MRI scans to identify different areas of tumours and take multiple samples at once to better understand their biology.
The Princess of Wales chats to patients at the Royal Marsden Hopsital (Image: Russell Myers/ Reach PLC)
It is hoped the technique, which was tested for the first time on 12 patients with rare soft tissue tumours, could eventually allow doctors to study tumours from scan images without needing to take invasive biopsies.
The Royal Marsden and ICR also developed the Man Van project which has shown that giving men access to screening in locations such as shops and football clubs can boost early diagnosis.
It successfully reached Black men, who made up 16% of all van visitors, and found more problematic cancers – 86% – compared with other screening studies (50%).
The Royal Marsden is also leading the major TRACC trial which aims to determine whether patients with colorectal cancer can be spared unnecessary chemotherapy and the nasty side effects that come with it.
It is investigating whether blood tests that search for tiny fragments of cancer DNA in the bloodstream could accurately predict which patients have the lowest risk of relapse and therefore don’t need chemo after surgery.
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust operates across three sites in Chelsea, Sutton and Cavendish Square in central London, and also has a Medical Daycare Unit at Kingston Hospital.
It is also home to the only National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) focused solely on cancer.