Royal Surrey named centre of excellence for brain tumours | News

Royal Surrey has been named a brain tumour centre of excellence.

The trust’s neuro-oncology partnership with St George’s and The Royal Marsden has been recognised as a Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence following a rigorous expert-led assessment.

A total of 14 centres across the UK received the prestigious accolade which recognises the excellent treatment, care and research provided to patients with a brain tumour.

This comes after the whole team, from surgeons, oncologists and nurses through to allied health professionals, palliative care specialists and clinical researchers were put through an assessment by a committee of clinical, research and patient experts.

Brain tumours affect over 12,000 adults in the UK every year and kill more people under the age of 40 than any other cancer. At Royal Surrey our expert team sees around 6-8 new patients every month.

The Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission has committed to ensuring all UK patients with a brain tumour can access the best standards of treatment, care and research, through the Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence initiative.

First launched in 2020, recipients had to demonstrate progress in areas such as holistic care, advancements in genomics and access to clinical trials.

They also had to meet new and higher standards in areas such as symptom management and psychological support.

This is the second time that the partnership between Royal Surrey, St George’s and Royal Marsden has been recognised as a centre of excellence, having first received the award in 2021. 

Consultant Clinical Oncologist and Deputy Chief of Service for Oncology, May Teoh was joined by colleagues from the partnership to receive the award during a prestigious ceremony, attended by charity leaders and MPs, at the Francis Crick Institute.

She said: “We are very proud and honoured to have been recognised for a second time as a Tessa Jowell Centre of Excellence.

“This acknowledges the high standards that we strive for in brain tumour care across the partnership, and the many years of hard work by a large number of colleagues to ensure patients have access to cutting edge treatments, ground-breaking research and innovative patient centred care.”

Jess Mills, Tessa Jowell’s daughter and the co-founder of TJBCM, said: “Mum’s legacy to transform outcomes for brain cancer patients across the UK has reached another huge milestone. It has been so moving to witness how committed the teams caring for patients are to come on this journey with us.”