Cancer Blaster Pits U.K. NHS Against Private Investors
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The U.K.’s state-run health system, often criticized for not funding innovative treatments, wants to build the country’s first football-field-sized proton-beam cancer therapy centers. Private investors may beat the government to it.
The U.K. is behind other nations in Europe in offering the therapy and now sends about 100 patients a year who qualify for it to the U.S. The government is poised to decide within weeks whether to spend as much as 250 million pounds ($380 million) on two centers, with the ultimate goal of saving the National Health Service money by cutting treatment cost almost in half.