A SPECIALIST cancer centre which will treat thousands of women across the region is due to launch at Ipswich Hospital today.The Stour Centre will treat and care for women with gynaelogical cancer and is the first specialist unit of its kind in the mid anglia region.

A SPECIALIST cancer centre which will treat thousands of women across the region is due to launch at Ipswich Hospital today.

The Stour Centre will treat and care for women with gynaelogical cancer and is the first specialist unit of its kind in the mid anglia region.

Around 300 women a year who live in east Suffolk and north Essex will be treated there.

Swedish consultant Anders Linder has also joined the team because he specifically wanted to help them set it up.

David Vasey, Consultant Gynaecological Oncologist and Lead Clinician for The Stour Centre, said: "Much careful planning and team working have gone into the new centre and we have appointed more medical staff, nurse specialists and nurses to work here.

"We've also invested in many other areas to meet the needs of our patients including pharmacy, anaesthesia, histopathology radiology, dietetics, occupational therapy, counselling, physiotherapy and theatre staff."

The new centre is part of a national government drive to set up specialist cancer centres to serve people with rarer forms of cancer.

National guidance recommends that people being treated for less common cancers have much better outcomes when their surgery is carried out by specialist teams who perform these procedures more regularly.

Ipswich Hospital was chosen to set up the unit by the Mid Anglia Cancer Network (MACN) which was formed in 2000 to improve cancer services in the county.

A public consultation and independent review was carried out.

The Stour Centre will treat about 80% of women living in the MACN area who need surgery for gynaecological cancer. Women living in mid and north Essex with early-stage cancer or who need less complex surgery will continue to be treated at their local hospitals.

Women being cared for at the centre will generally spend five to seven days in the unit. All other aspects of their care - before they come into the centre, and when they leave - will be provided at their local hospital.

Transport to the centre for patients, relatives and carers who live in mid and north Essex, and who are unable to make the journey themselves, will be provided by the East Anglian Ambulance NHS Trust.

n. What are your experiences of cancer care in the county? Do you think this centre is a good idea? Write to us at Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.