Case Study: Leo Cancer Care

Aiming to be a roaring success in the field of cancer treatment 

KSS AHSN is supporting an innovative Surrey-based company that aims to change the way cancer therapy is delivered.  Leo Cancer Care, based in Horley, makes proton beam therapy (PBT) devices, with the potential to save the NHS millions of pounds and increase patient throughput.

The company’s products use a unique upright positioning system, which can be installed more quickly, more cheaply, and take up a fraction of the space of traditional machines.

The health and economic case

Leo Cancer Care employs c.50 UK staff and is recruiting for roles in mechanical engineering, medical physics, product development, training, and other fields. Since 2020 it has invested in the region, expanding from one It was one of only 24 innovation companies in England to be selected to participate in the AHSN Network’s Innovation Feature Zone at the NHS ConfedExpo in June 2023.

Nuala Foley, KSS AHSN Associate Director Commercial and Enterprise, said: “Leo Cancer Care has enormous potential to make a positive difference to cancer treatment in the NHS. We are providing support to build an evidence base to help this innovative company achieve its ambitions.”

We have supported the company to commission evaluation and validation reports, leading to a cost-benefit analysis and budget impact model. These found that the company’s Marie™ system could lower the cost and waiting list backlog in the NHS and yield greater return on investment compared to existing NHS machinery for cancer treatment. However, the potential impacts on the NHS are yet to be determined.

Research indicates that half the GB population will get cancer at some time, and while survival rates have doubled in the last 40 years, OECD data shows UK cancer deaths per 100,000 of the population are 13^th highest out of 42 countries, with nine out of ten cancer survival rates worse in Britain than in Europe.

Further research is recommended as to whether the Leo devices will improve treatment quality and about the long-term benefits and side-effects, but research to date shows that PBT can reduce long term morbidity

Read the full case study here