SABR for early lung cancer

UHS has been commissioned by NHS England to provide a stereotactic radiotherapy service for early primary lung cancers. We provide this service through a team of clinicians, radiographers, physicists and nurse specialists.

In addition to treating patients from UHS we also accept external referrals from Bournemouth, Dorchester, Guernsey, Isle of Wight, Jersey, Salisbury, Poole and Winchester.

We hope in the near future to be able to expand and accept referrals from the rest of the Wessex region.

Referrals

• Please find the eligibility criteria for referral below

• Please note we are currently not commissioned within the NHS for treating lung metastases unless within a trial setting.
• Please send the referral proforma (below) plus results of any relevant tests such as lung function, and any relevant recent clinic letters from a secure nhs.net email account to our group email account SABR@uhs.nhs.uk

• Any referrals with incomplete information will be returned.
• Please ensure any recent scans are sent to UHS PACS for the team to view.
• If you are referring from another hospital trust please complete an inter-provider transfer form and email it to the above address. Referrals will not be accepted without this. Your local lung MDT coordinator can help you with this process if you are unfamiliar with it.

All appropriate referrals will be discussed at the Thursday SABR lung meeting, and if appropriate at the lung MDT. You will be contacted within 48 hours of the meeting with a response.

Please note if we do not have capacity to treat a patient, we will ask you to refer to an alternative centre.

If you have any queries please contact us at SABR@uhs.nhs.uk

Patient information

Patients should be aware that following discussion of their case at the lung SABR meeting, if treatment is agreed to be appropriate, we will contact them directly to arrange an outpatient appointment. If possible we will try to arrange their CT planning appointment for the same day but this is not guaranteed.

Treatment will usually commence two to three weeks after their CT planning appointment. It will be delivered on alternative days and will involve between three and eight treatments, depending on the location of their tumour.

Completion of treatment

Once patients have completed their treatment, we will review them back in clinic two to four weeks later. After this point, external referrals will be referred back to their local team.

Our recommended follow up schedule post-SABR treatment is:

• Every three months for one year, then every six months for a minimum of five years.

Our recommended imaging schedule post-SABR is:

• CT imaging at three months post-SABR, nine months post-SABR, then annually depending on clinical circumstances.

It is essential for local and national audit purposes that we get clear outcome data following treatment. We would therefore be grateful if you could complete the SABR follow up proforma when a patient is reviewed in clinic at the above time scales and email it to SABR@uhs.nhs.uk.