Cancer patients will get faster, more comfortable treatment with two state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines.

Queen’s Hospital in Romford, run by Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospital Trust (BHRUT), is the only one in the world to house two Halcyon machines.

The radiotherapy machines fire a precise beam of high energy radiation at tumours inside a cancer patient’s body.

The patient lies down on a board and is rolled into the centre of the doughnut-shaped machine before cameras are used to precisely direct the radiation beam and kill the cancerous cells.

The new multimillion pound Halcyons are more comfortable for patients, can treat more patients per day and are able to better target cancer cells than older machines could.

The side effects of the radiotherapy, including nausea, are also reduced and are noticeably milder with these new machines and the machines take less time to power up and down every day.

The first Halcyon arrived at Queen’s hospital in October 2017 and was the first of its kind in the UK – the second followed last month.

Having the second machine has allowed the hospital to more than double the number of cancer patients it can treat on site every day, going from 30 patients per day on the trust’s old machine to 90 between the two Halcyons.

Stuart McCaighy, head of radiotherapy at Queen’s, described how proud he is to be at the forefront of cancer treatment development as part of his work at the hospital trust.

He said: “Over the past couple of years we have transformed our radiotherapy department so we are up there with the best cancer treatment centres in the level of care we can deliver to our patients.

“It is also really exciting for us to be using the most up-to-date machines. We have had lots of positive feedback from our patients too who have seen a real difference in treatment on our newer machines.”

Mr McCaighy also described how far radiotherapy has developed in the last decade and during his time as a radiographer.

He added: “I started out in radiotherapy many years ago, and I could not have imagined how treatment would come on over the years so it is absolutely amazing to be able to deliver care using the latest technology in the trust I work for.”