IT IS the revolutionary mobile device that could help thousands of cancer sufferers.

Experts in Southampton are set to become the first people in the UK to use the groundbreaking piece of kit called the Mobetron.

They will use it to deliver radiotherapy more precisely during surgery, avoiding damage to surrounding tissue and organs.

The Mobetron, which uses a form of treatment called intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT), will be used for the first time in operating theatres at Southampton General Hospital this month.

Experts in the city are at the forefront of the fight against cancer, with the Daily Echo revealing earlier this year that they were on the cusp of developing a cure.

IORT is an intensive form of targeted radiation given at the time of surgery to treat a wide variety of advanced cancers that are difficult to remove and treat.

Using Mobetron technology, the radiation is given by high energy electron beams delivered with precision to a very specific location inside the body immediately after a cancer has been removed.

Daily Echo:

The Mobetron will be used for the first time in operating theatres at Southampton General Hospital

This enables surgeons and oncology specialists to deliver much higher doses of the anti-cancer treatment to areas at a high risk of recurrence without damaging surrounding healthy tissue and organs seen with conventional external beam radiotherapy.

The device was funded by patient support group and charity PLANETS, which is part of Southampton Hospital Charity and fundraises for pancreatic, liver and neuroendocrine tumour services.

Co-founded in 2010 by surgeon Neil Pearce alongside some of his former patients and colleagues, PLANETS has so far raised £350,000 of the £500,000 required to fund the Mobetron system for the next three years.

Mr Pearce, who is now associate medical director for patient safety at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS), said: “This is a landmark moment for the treatment of advanced cancer in Southampton and across the UK.

“IORT using the Mobetron is a safe and effective standard of care in the treatment of complex cancers in a large number of internationally-renowned cancer centres and Southampton can now count itself among that group.”

Professor Peter Johnson, a consultant oncologist at UHS and Cancer Research UK's head clinician who was recognised in the Queen's birthday honours, said: "The practice of radiation oncology is undergoing a revolution, with new technology changing the way that cancer can be treated.

“This development is at the cutting-edge of modern radiation oncology and it will be exciting to see how it can be used to help patients in Southampton.”

The system, tested by experts at the National Physical Laboratory in London before being transported to Southampton, will be used initially to treat patients with pancreatic, neuroendocrine, colorectal and bladder tumours.

It is currently only available in 50 cancer centres based in Europe, North and South America and Asia.